By Emeke Ojukwu
Komb Green Solutions is a CBO based in Korogocho, a low-income settlement area in Nairobi, Kenya. The youth-led organization focuses on River Nairobi clean-up, environmental restoration, and community mentorship.
The CBO has converted a former dumping site to a sprawling park complete with an urban vegetable garden, a tree nursery, and multiple ‘chill spots.’ Whenever members of the immediate community need a break from the hustle of life in a densely populated area, this is their go-to place. Be it children looking to explore their creative side away from their parents’ watchful gaze; women catching up on the latest drama or discussing the merits and demerits of the new education system; men discussing politics, football, or the latest development in town, they all have a place in the park. All thanks to the industry of the community volunteers who make up Komb Green Solutions.
Part of the organization is a group of women who are doing more than merely restoring the ecosystem, they are restoring their community too.
The women established a Memorial Park on the riverbank within the larger Komb Green Park. The memorial park is the final resting place of 47 fetuses that were aborted, and their bodies dumped in the Nairobi River. The bodies get trapped in the fishnets put in the river by Komb Green to collect floating plastic waste along the river channel. They are then recovered by the group members when they wade into the river to empty the fishnets of the plastic collected therein and immediately buried. A rock is then added to the Memorial to mark a flower pruned before it got a chance to bloom. The river continues to roar in the background seeming to indicate the would-be limitless potential of lives cut too short, too soon.
Besides establishing and maintaining the memorial park, the Komb Green Women have taken it upon themselves to make sure they don’t have to bury baby number 48.
Half of the produce from Komb Green’s urban Garden is sold to generate revenue. The other half goes to a feeding program. Every Saturday, the women prepare a buffet and invite the children in the community to lunch. More than just (a much-needed) balanced diet, the kids receive mentorship too. They are taught about the environment, the value of conservation, and how to set up tree nurseries and kitchen gardens of their own.
Using the proceeds of the vegetables sold and donor funding, the Komb Green Women donate sanitary towels to the girls in the local schools. While at it, the girls are taught about safe sex and family planning methods. This ensures the girls can’t be lured into sex in exchange for pads and limits unplanned pregnancies that could end in abortion.
All this is done by a group of five women led by Lilian Ogola, their chairlady. The others are Celine Anyango the treasurer, Ann Wangui the Programs Coordinator together with Lilian Nabwire and Sheila Sanya who are both members.
The women are all drawn from Korogocho. Before joining Komb Green, they engaged in either commercial sex work, sold illegal drugs and cheap alcohol within slums, and/or did menial jobs. They were motivated to join the CBO by the original members. These were individuals drawn from their community who had chosen to forfeit lives in crime and commit to redefining their neighborhood. One such person is Fredrick, the current chairman of the organization. Yes, they have both a chairman and a charlady. Organizations still trying to figure out gender equity, gather around.
Komb Green has allowed them to productively engage themselves and contribute to achieving a goal bigger than their individual selves.
Going forward, the group aims to acquire new machinery to revamp their car wash. Similarly, they aim to set up a canteen at the park to be used by the visitors. They project that these initiatives will generate revenue that will not only make the CBO self-sustaining but also provide an income for the community volunteers. They are currently sourcing funds to enable them to execute these projects.