About Us

#UrbanYouthAction

Youth-LED action towards a sustainable development agenda

Mathare Environmental Conservation Youth Group started in 1997 as a response to joblessness and pollution. A group of young football players noticed an opportunity to help keep the streets clean and create jobs doing it. By doing door to door garbage collection, residents no longer had to dispose of waste themselves and were willing to pay young community members to do it. Where once a mountain of garbage existed, now sits the Mathare One Stop Youth Centre, a lighthouse in the community of youth-led action and development.

Play Video

Mathare in the Heart of the City of Nairobi, Kenya. Mathare is a community in Kenya, home to approximately 800,000 people and Nairobi’s oldest slum. The Mathare Environmental One Stop Youth Centre was established by Mathare Environmental Conservation Youth Group (MECYG) with support from UN-Habitat, the Government of Norway, and Samsung C&T.

The Mathare Environmental One Stop provides a safe and generative space for young men and women of the community. The One Stop features the Innovate Kenya ICT Centre which trains young men and women in technology and business, a feeding programme for at risk youth, and a football programme both young men and women.

Partnerships for authentic experiences.

Isaac Kaka Muasa, Coordinator, Mathare Environmental One Stop Centre

”When the youth are fighting for open spaces, they are fighting for a developing community”