Kibuye Zingira Youth Bunge members improve their livelihoods by saving the environment

Kibuye Zingira Youth Bunge members improve their livelihoods by saving the environment

Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya is faced by high rates of unemployment and restricted access to other opportunities which pushes youth to risky behavior. Amid these challenges, the lives of 60 Zingira Youth Bunge members, of whom 26 are female, have been transformed through creation of new livelihood opportunities.

“Zingira”, the swahili word for environment seemed the perfect name for this group. Their raw materials are collectibles considered harmful to environment which they recycle to produce valuable products for sale. “Waste that is harmful to the environment is gold to us.  Be it bottle tops, wires, tins, glass, plastics and even the water hyacinth which was once considered a curse to Kisumu. The hyacinth gained us international fame when we made the late environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai’s coffin whose request was not to be buried in a wooden coffin in order to protect trees, ” says Omondi as he proudly displays other products made from the water hyacinth.

Kibuye Zingira village bunge also makes recycled paper which is used for making cards and other ornamental items. From the water hyacinth, the group makes chairs, tables, magazine holders, trays, lamp holders, marts among other things.  Other products include necklaces, earrings, bracelets, decorations, candle stands, and a variety of toys. Having been mobilized as a group through USAID’s Yes Youth Can program and receiving a grant, the group now earns between $600 to $1,700 when sales are good and $250 to $450 when sales are low. “We used to make products individually and it took days to make one product. We made little profit living from hand to mouth. Thanks to USAID’s Yes Youth Can program which helped us come together and work as a group.  We are making more products for sale because work is distributed among members enabling us to work effectively and efficiently,” says Omondi, one of the bunge members.  

Through Yes Youth Can, young people organize themselves in youth-run and youth-led bunges, (parliaments) through which members democratically elect their own leaders at the village, county, and national level. The bunges provide a structure and a forum for young women and men to mobilize and take action to improve their own lives by establishing small businesses. To date, as many as 20,000 village-level bunges countrywide have been formed and registered with the government of Kenya as Self-Help-Groups.

“These products are our life’s proudest achievements.  They have created employment for us; our standards of living have improved, and even made us very famous.  I am sure in the next few years, Nyanza youth will have transformed their lives in terms of livelihoods therefore determining their own future” says Redempter the Bunge’s treasurer while showing off two trophies the group won during the National Youth Trade Fair and the MSE’s Innovation for Industrialization by 2030.  

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Story by Joan Lewa