Child Regional Education Support Services (CRESS) Kenya

Qui sommes-nous

Child Regional Education Support Services (CRESS Kenya) is a Kenyan NGO that aims to make education accessible to underprivileged children living in the slums of Nairobi. The organisation also aims to protect their rights, build confidence and help them to become responsible adults
CRESS KENYA was started in 2009 by a group of university students who shared a common vision. It was duly registered in 2011 as nonprofit Community Based Organization.

Mission
To empower vulnerable children, youth and women of Nairobi slums, educationally, economically so that they become part of change in their communities.

Vision
To provide education to vulnerable children in the underprivileged parts of Kenya: empower youth and women economically through entrepreneurship and vocational training.

Objectives:
• To provide educational support services to schools and community.
• To support marginalized children access education.
• Create HIV/AIDS awareness.
• To initiate environmental conservation strategies.
• To lay out development strategies that empower the community.
• To eradicate illiteracy.
• To empower youth and women through income generating activities.
• To nurture talent through sports.

Our work
• Youth and women empowerment: Our community programs provide resources to further economic opportunity, education advancement and advance human rights, creating space for individuals to pave personal paths out of poverty. We support children in slums to acquire education through provision of books, stationery, uniforms, sanitary pads, sponsorships and sometimes school infrastructure. We equip the vulnerable group with computer skills, adult literacy and entrepreneurship training. We organize for gatherings around issues that affect slum residents: rape, insecurity and unemployment among youth and women.
• Education: CRESS provides educational support services to schools and vulnerable children in slums. This approach invites both genders to be part of the solution and builds a community invested in its own future—ultimately, transforming the face of urban poverty while creating tomorrow´s leaders. We provide a superior education to the future engines of social change in Nairobi´s slums.
• Peace and conflict resolution: We conduct door to door campaigns preaching peace and security. We have partnered with security agencies both at the local and national to ensure that those engaged in crimes are punished. We work with local administrators and religious leaders to ensure there is high security in the slums. We have groups of young people who update us on crimes taking place and who are behind them. We use community radios to preach peaceful co-existence. We also organize for sporting activities when schools close in order to bring youth together.
• Community clean up: We mobilize the community to conduct weekend cleaning where everyone participates. This has improved hygiene in the slums. It is also a way of fostering unity since people from different ethnic communities come together for a common course. We have partnered with other organizations which support us in many ways.

Lawrence Dieto is the Programs Officer and Co-Founder of Child Regional Education Support Services (CRESS Kenya).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.