Visiting the UN and Kahawa Prison in Nairobi
August 2023
Project managers from The Nasio Trust were given the exciting opportunity to visit the United Nations’ Headquarters in Nairobi as well as the Kahawa Law Courts. Along with a welcome change of pace, the trip also allowed the managers understand the role the UN has played in shaping the development world that we are a part of.
The UN office in Nairobi is one of four UN headquarters around the world, with others based in New York, Geneva, and Vienna. The UN compound is an embodiment of the institution’s values that non-profits like Nasio resonate with. The Nairobi office is the world headquarters for the UN Environment Programme and the Urban Settlements project – two key concerns of the 21st century world. A tour of the offices provided us with a perspective on global concerns and a place for reflection on what we envision the future of the world to be.
With Keith Budgen’s, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees in the UK, assistance, the managers also visited Kahawa Law Courts, a special court established to provide swift justice in critical criminal cases in this realm with expediency, thereby ensuring the collapse of terrorist networks around East Africa. We managed to speak with a magistrate at the court who shared the barriers to quick management and redressal of cases. The visit once again reiterated the need to install reliable processes that outlast the people who enact them.
At Nasio, we strive towards working with transparency, efficiency, and empathy to create a conducive environment for our teams and the community.
While in Nairobi, we also managed to make a visit to the Human Need Project in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. It was an eye-opening experience to see how a large chunk of Nairobi’s population lives. Despite being from India, I had never truly considered what it means to live in informal settlements – with the infrastructure of a large metropolitan city in your backyard but no access to it. The Human Needs Project has recognised the crucial role lack of water plays in keeping Kibera within the vicious cycle of poverty. We left the project motivated and inspired.
The project managers’ experiences in Nairobi reinforced that Nasio is a part of a worldwide network of like-minded organisations working towards a similar goal of changing lives for the better. We have returned to Musanda brimming with ideas and are excited to put the things we learnt into practice.
This story is listed in: Projects, Volunteer Stories
