Will you stand shoulder to shoulder with women working for a better future?
Women working in Kenya's dumpsites face dangerous conditions and difficult choices - like choosing between food or clean water for their children.
It’s not fair. But with your help, it CAN change.
With training from VSO experts, women waste pickers can nearly double their income by gaining the skills to earn a fair price for their hard work. Your support could help them provide food, clean water, and lasting stability for their families.
Donate today and claim your limited-edition VSO pin badge to show you stand with women transforming waste into wages and brighter futures.
Will you help ensure women’s futures aren’t thrown away?
Dandora is a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, and home to 140,000 people. Lorries bring up to 2,000 tonnes of waste from across the city to their home every day. Among the dangerous, filthy waste are women collecting recycling to sell and feed their families.
Without protective equipment, they face cuts, infections, and disease, often living nearby in cramped slums where waste spills into their homes. With no other options, many bring their children with them to the dumpsites, where they risk tragic accidents amidst heavy machinery.
Women waste workers are exploited, often viewed as “dirty” and given unfairly low prices for their hard work. But with your support, VSO experts can offer essential resources that change lives. Women working on the rubbish dumps are doing an essential job, recycling waste. With your support, expert VSO volunteers can help them:
- Work safely (everyone is provided with protective clothing).
- Live safely in an area where there are high levels of crime and drug and alcohol abuse.
- Sort waste, which will enable them to get a better price.
- Prioritise items that have a higher value.
- Use a buyback centre that will give them a fair price for the waste they pick.
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Keep children safe. By building affordable childcare centres near the dumpsites, giving mothers a safe place to leave their children while they work, and allowing them to focus on their jobs without fear for their children's safety.
VSO has an ambitious plan to help 3,900 waste pickers to improve their livelihoods and for 6,000 tonnes of waste to be collected. Will you help?
Please, donate today, and help make sure women’s futures aren’t thrown away.
Donate today and claim your limited-edition VSO pin badge
Donate today and as a thank you, we'll send you a VSO pin badge so you can show your support for girls being forced out of school. We hope you wear this badge with pride and show the world you are a changemaker.
Please allow 2-4 weeks for your badge to arrive.
To help answer any questions about the pin badges, please click here.
Our promise to you
It's important to us that you feel completely confident and comfortable in supporting VSO. As part of our promise to you:
- We will always treat your personal information with the strictest confidence.
- We will be transparent with how your donations are spent.
- We will always be in control of your