Mazingira ni Afya
Welcome to the web site of our company Mazingira ni Afya, which means Environment is Health. In this site you can find all the information about our business.
“People do not buy a product in order to support the existence of your company”, they actually buy a product in order to fulfil their desires. This is the main belief of young student entrepreneurs of Mazingira Ni Afya company which means environment is health. This is a new founded business located in Kenya Nairobi in a slum of Dandora.
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Mazingira Ni Afya is an enterprise that exists to provide safe working equipment and a better life of the trash collectors of Dandora Dumpsite in Nairobi, Kenya. We also believe that a business should be able to reduce the buyers’ anxieties and satisfy their needs.
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Our potential customers have so many anxieties and needs, we hope our existence will make a difference in their lives and the society as a whole.
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We focus on Dandora dumpsite which covers over 30 acres in the heart of Nairobi in Kenya. Dandora is the biggest dumpsite in Africa, with about 30,000 people visiting the dumpsite every day. The high amount of people visiting the dumpsite is as a result of high unemployment rates of the residents living in dandora slum (world bank).In Fact it is a source of livelihood to the people in the bottom of the pyramid who are making a living from scavenging the wastes.Between 850 and 2,000 metric tonnes of trash are disposed on the dumpsite every day(UNEP,2007).
The dumpsite is surrounded by many slums( i.e Baba dogo,Mathare,Korogocho, and Dandora) and it existence has led to a number of problems to the people working and living near the dumpsite and its environment.
For example it causes respiratory infections due to toxic emissions and injuries from broken glasses.According to the study by UNEP, medical records obtained from the Catholic Church dispensary at Kariobangi showed that an average of 9,121 people were treated for respiratory tract-related problems in 2003-2006.Most of the blood cancer infections in children is emanated from the dumpsite-during the rain seasons water flows down the area together with some wastes into the Nairobi river, which is a source of drinking water and water used for farming.
its also been said that the soil on the dumpsite is not good for agriculture, a study, commissioned by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), revealed that soil samples collected from the site recorded high levels of lead compared with reference standards in the Netherlands and Taiwan. Similar findings were reported for other heavy metals. Making it difficult for the residents (dandora) to venture into farming.
Our main focus is to help the people to improve their living standards(eradicating poverty), providing safe working conditions and a stable income, increasing collector’s productivity. With the end results of improving the environment and control the wastes on the dumpsite.
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Our existence (goal)
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Is to provide a stable income of these people on the dumpsite by selling their trash to reliable recycling companies and give them a fair amount based on what they pick( not exploiting them). We want to help them increase their productivity. And we will address their health issues by providing them with safe health equipment such as protection masks, boots, gloves.