As many of you know, several months ago Amber and I went on a humanitarian trip to Kenya. One of our stops was at an elementary school next to the Dandora landfill dumpsite in Nairobi. This site is one of the largest landfills in the world, where thousands of families survive by scavenging through mountains of garbage, looking for food to eat or scraps to sell.

DADREG Primary School is doing incredible things for the children who are growing up in this very challenging environment . They are providing the education and skills these kids need to escape the cycle of abject poverty. We spent time there with the school director, George, and members of Servant Forge, the non-government organization who is helping oversee construction and raise funds to help DADREG make such a difference in this community.

The school already serves 250 young students, and they are in the process of building another block of classrooms that will expand enrollment to over 500 students and add secondary and trade school programs. For these children, that means the possibility of going from life in the landfill to real job opportunities and a better future.

But here’s the challenge: many of the students can’t attend school consistently because their families live in makeshift huts on top of the dump and depend on the income these kids can generate by spending their time sifting through the trash to find items to sell. These families use this money to buy food and to help pay for "protection" at night from the gangs that roam the dump. Safety and stability, by our standards, are completely nonexistent. Education alone isn't enough if these children have no secure place to sleep, no protection from violence, and no hope beyond a life spent in the landfill.

That’s why the next critical step is completing a women’s housing project adjacent to the school. This housing will provide a safe home for 37 families—about 185 individuals—who are currently living in the dump. For the children in these families, it means they can actually attend school regularly, focus on their studies, and dream of a life beyond the trash heaps. For their mothers, it means access to training and programs that will help them build sustainable livelihoods.

The housing project is already underway, but construction has been stalled for about a year due to lack of funds. To finish, we need $66,400 to complete everything necessary to make these one room apartments livable.

This is a project that has touched Amber and me deeply, and we feel compelled to help. We know that there are many ills in this world that we just can’t cure, but we can make a difference in this place - and that is what we are going to do. It will require so little from us to have such an enormous impact in the lives of these kids, children who are waiting for the chance to sit in a classroom and to hope for a life beyond the edges of the dump. So we’ve decided to help raise the funds to complete this project.

The women's shelter structure on the left, halfway completed, but stalled in construction progress:

Some of the mothers who have already been rescued from the dump and whose children attend the school:

Our team with some of the students at the DADREG school in Kenya:

The half completed school building behind the 2 currently functioning buildings:

The view from the future school library:

Our team with some of the teachers and leaders at the school:

Help us Rescue 37 Families from the Dandora Dump in Kenya with this Housing Project

By Servant Forge Inc

Help us Rescue 37 Families from the Dandora Dump in Kenya with this Housing Project

By Jake & Amber Oldham - We'll Match Every Dollar