Mlebinge Mwashite Foundation

William Etulo
settled in Albury,
Australia in 2013
with his four
children and
nephew after
ten years living
as a refugee between Nairobi and the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya
Murray Valley Sanctuary Refugee Group members are working with William, Chairman of the Mlebinge Mwashite Foundation and the Kenyan MMF Non-Government Organisation to support their efforts

Two thirds of refugees in Africa do not live in Refugees Camps but live in slums within cities. The Carmen Maria Pia Humanitarian Support Group was formed in 2003 with a vision to address many issues emanating from refugee communities and other disadvantaged people in Nairobi, Kenya. The name of the organisation was changed in 2012 in recognition of the founder, William Etulo's late wife, Mlebinge Mwashite.

The Dagoretti area of Nairobi is home to more than 20,000 refugees from the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan. Most of the refugee community live in semi-permanent, informal settlements with no government services and ninety percent unemployment.

Child Protection and Education Program
In this priority we intend to offer education sponsorship to the refugee orphans and other disadvantaged children that will cater for payment of school fees, uniform, food and learning materials (books, pens and pencils).

For the previous years our organization has been able to assist 36 children and due to pressing needs and a high number of children needed support we intend to increase the number of children in programs for next year.

Refugee Women Empowerment Program
Most refugee women and young girls in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Nairobi are survivors of sexual abuse, torture, rape, early forced marriage and divorce. Unemployment and livelihood opportunity remains a critical issue thus many youth and women are jobless.

Due to this the organization has initiated a tailoring workshop with three sewing machines in Kakuma Refugee Camp. This is focused on helping refugee women and young girls by providing training in tailoring, designs and making. With this initiative we are seeking funds to help expand the tailoring workshop.

In addition, the project wishes to improve the lives of widows, single mothers and youth in order to assist them with small financial support that will help them to venture into small businesses as a way of establishing long term sustainability.

For instance, for $300, MMF could purchase of knitting needles and wool in Kenya for refugee women to knit blankets for the elderly living in the Refugee Camp in Kakuma.

Community Capacity Building Program
MMF has been holding workshops on HIV / AIDS awareness, reproductive health, gender based violence and life skills development. This has imparted a lot of knowledge to the communities on prevention measure and behaviour modification.

With this initiative we intend to strengthen the program by organizing more seminars and workshops in our areas of operation for the next coming year.

A sponsorship of $600 would run HIV/AIDS workshops for 50 participants together with show bags relevant to the workshop and foodstuffs (providing an incentive to participate).


Food Support Program (Meal A Day Program)
With little contribution raised from our members, our organization has been supporting the most vulnerable refugees with foodstuffs so as they can get one meal a day. This came after discovering that there were many desperate people, both refugees and locals are not able to get one meal per day, hence sleeping without eating.
For the next coming year our organization would like to seek funds so as the program can work properly and effectively, hence supporting many destitute people, eg sick people, old persons and other people with special needs.


Sports Program
The organization has been in the frontline in promoting sports activity, eg soccer among refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Due to a lack of funding this program is still at its infancy. Therefore we are intending to promote this program for the next year so as we may be able to organize tournaments designed for all the age categories.