Introduced morning glory prayers. This would see the congregation grow in faith thus enabling the conversion of thousands of non-believers of the word of God into Christiani- ty and thus the growth in the number of worship services conducted on Sundays in the church.
As a result of the growth he inspired at AIC Ziwani, Rev. Wambua would be posted to start a new church at the sprawling, crime infested Mathare valley from the year 2002 to date. Upon mastering the dynamics of the valley and thanks to the many uninterrupted years of service, he would set on initiating activities whose impact would transcend far and wide.
The seed to impact education of bright children from vulnerable communities germinat- ed early in the life of Rev.Jonson Wambua. As a young man working with the national social security fund, he started a School in the slums of Kibera in Nairobi. Although owing to challenges, he would close the School it gave him early insights on how to successful- ly run an education institution. On this front and together with the Local church council AIC ZION, they started a church owned primary School squeezed within the church grounds. The school has plugged in the big gap in the area of access to education by children from the slums of Mathare valley. The school which charges very subsidized tuition fee and caters to over five hundred learners and has since inception registered a mean score of over 300 marks. The school has since the first KCPE in 2010 transitioned learners to various good high schools with 67 of them proceeding to the university.
In Mathare which abound with thousands of vulnerable women- drug and substance abusers, teenage mothers, commercial sex workers, HIV infected cases and peddlers of illicit brews, we worked with women groups to empower and transform them to live dignified lives. One such is the Women of Faith group. We have worked with the group of ten members to train them on entrepreneurship and supported them with a seed capital of kshs. 100,000/=. They have used the funds to fund their business and also buy land which has enabled them relocate to safer habitats away from the challenging life endured in the slums. Leveraging on the capacity developed among the group members, the group serves as trainers of trainers (TOT) and extends the acquired training to other groups and non-members on how to do self-help. The result has seen empowerment multiply to hundreds of other community based groups.
In KATHONZEWI of MAKUENI County, we have since year 2010 worked with a fifty member women group on a goat rearing project. The foundation purchased an initial seed of 7 goats and spray pumps to fight against livestock pests. They rear the goats as a group and from the initial heard, the number has multiplied through giving birth and each member of the fifty members of the group has acquired own goat and even developed further interest which has seen them acquire more goats. The group has remained cohesive and is exploring possibilities of venturing into table banking and lending to further enhance their financial status.
We have plans to work with the Masai women by organizing production and providing marketing services to their precious beads and artifacts internationally and thus help to transform them from mere housewives to become actors in the economic space.
In line with the global agenda of fighting the vagaries caused by climate change, the Foundation has set on conserving the environment through reclaiming arid wasteland and making it conducive for human use. As such we acquired a 10 acres piece of land which we have reclaimed by cutting terraces, planting grass and trees. The land has been donated to KISAANI DCC to be put into development. Decarburization exercise, we have set out on an ambitious tree planting project in conjunction with the community. We seek to grow ten thousand trees in five years. To date we have grown one thou- sand five hundred trees and are driving broader collaborations to enable the foundation to play a significant role in climate change intervention.