Kibera Paper
Empowered Women International partnered with Kibera Paper Kenya to help women and children in Kibera Slum break free from poverty.
Watch a Video about Kibera Paper
Kibera Paper Card Project started in May 2001 at Kibera Slum.Kibera Paper is an ingenious solution that offers a living wage for fulfilling work. Local offices donate waste printed matter and this is pulped down, dyed and dryed, and transformed into beautiful handmade paper. The paper is used to create exquisite greetings cards, which are designed by three in-house artists and made by 22 artisans. Those with young babies bring them to work; the older children attend school, some for the first time, because their parents can now afford the fees.
Kibera Paper offers women safe and stable work, many times enabling them not just to feed their families, but to pay the school fees for their kids.
“Kibera Paper employs 24 women, each of which live in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya and one of the largest in Africa,” says Kristen Maryn a fellow of the Advocacy Project, who introduced the organization to EWI. “Kibera is known for its instability, and especially now, with the drought, most people in the slums only eat one meal a day. All women are single mothers, either widowed or left by the husbands.”
VISION
To see the transformation of the poorest members of the informal settlement in Kibera, through a program of sustainable development. As the women learn practical skills to improve their living, they also heal from their difficult past.
MISSION
To teach the women the skills that allow them to earn an income, helping them provide for themselves and their families.
Provide an income that allows women to meet the basic needs for their children like education, food, housing and clothing.- Ensure that the project is self-sustaining by not depending on donors; by generating the income from the sale of product.
- Create an environment where women are cared for and that enable them to develop their self-esteem.
Empowered Women International is proud to sell the beautiful handmade cards made from recycled paper and created by the talented micro-entrepreneur women of Kibera Paper.
