Pamoja Tunaweza

Pamoja Tunaweza (formerly Tuendelee Mbele)

Ten kilometers from the center of Nairobi, Kenya, SOLID supports an HIV/AIDS outreach project in the slums of Mathare and the factories of Ruaraka.

This is an export processing zone, where clothing is made for the western market by workers under unimaginably difficult conditions that include very low wages, no overtime pay, no sick leave, no health care, harassment, firings for union activity and unsafe working conditions. This environment of desperation combines with ignorance about HIV, leading to rapid spread of the virus.

Mathare North, near the EPZ factories

Since the summer of 2006 SOLID has supported the training of workers and former workers as peer educators. Working in the factories and the communities, providing basic information on HIV/AIDS, the peer educators are making a difference and increasingly are turned to for help.

Peer educators Juma, Catherine, Tabitha, Faith and Miriam sharing stories about their outreach activities

Pamoja Tunaweza, a registered Kenyan CBO (non-profit), and our partner in Kenya, is currently delivering an outreach project with a focus on workers, women and teens. Using a variety of techniques – leafleting outside factory gates, women and youth meetings, one to one conversations whenever and wherever is possible, supporting people to be tested and to take ARVs, street theatre – they are bringing awareness and hope.

Moses Odinga teaching about the root causes of HIV/AIDS

Committed to operating in a democratic and transparent manner, Pamoja Tunaweza, has a mandate to reach out to the workers and the surrounding communities. In addition to the HIV project, members are active in workers rights issues and have recently begun responding to family violence in their community.

Enjoying each other’s company after a women’s meeting

Below is a photojournalism essay created by Pamoja Tunaweza, that details the circumstances of their lives. As part of a labour rights seminar in the fall of 2008, they documented their daily experience in photographs and wrote the accompanying script.