From a drunkard to a mobiliser.

“I used to be so bad and fought at the smallest provocation,” says Janefiver Nafuna who claims she has been locked in almost every police station West of Nairobi.
The lady is outspoken, full of vigour and is a self-proclaimed organizer of slum dwellers. Nafuna came to Nairobi back in 1999 when her marriage failed. She left Kitale having been promised a job in this city only to get here and find that this was about selling alcohol in the slums. “I started drinking like crazy and I didn’t care about anybody.” Nafuna is now reformed and tells her story without fear.
God’s saving grace touched her when she started going for mass at the Consolata Catholic Shrine in Westlands. Nafuna admits that drinking and spending time in police cells were taking a toll on her and that she was just lucky to have not been sentenced to serve jail term at Lang’ata Women’s Prison. “I was crazy, I fought and was rough,” adding that, “I was notorious and police were called to sort my many cases leading to a situation where I police stations had become my second home.”

“When I met friends from the Catholic Church my rehabilitation started in earnest.” Kutoka Network is an arm of the church that works in the slums and that is how Nafuna found her help. She realized drinking was not helping her and she decided to quit. She was called upon to speak in a few meetings and when the crowd applauded, she realized she had a mission to help the youth especially young mothers who were abusing alcohol in the slums.
She was introduced to Jamii Bora Microfinance (MFI) back then where she started saving. By little by which grew enough for borrowing, she was able to access a loan of Ksh 10,000. It is this loan that she used to rehabilitate her four toilets and three
bathrooms in Deep Sea Slums. People in the slums would pay a small to use these facilities. She had started by Ksh 50-100 per week.

Nafuna who is still single but a mother of five, has been a serious mobiliser of slum mothers who are not able to access loans in normal banks since they lack collateral security. Parklands estate mostly populated by people of Indian descent. Recently Yazekena Sacco Limited negotiated for slum dwellers to move from the Ring Road reserve and occupy the sloppy area around beside the road. Yawezeka helped these poor people to construct new shanties.
Yawezekana has been at the forefront of helping these poor people who are often affected by fires that are common occurrence of the slums. Most of these are poor mothers who run meager businesses like washing clothes, selling porridge and grocery to support their families. Yawezekana also provides them with Health Insurance.