Procter & Gamble launch community centre to address water needs for Kibera residents

By Phil Mwembi

Ms. Rose Okello from Kibera explains to Virginie Helias, Global Director, Sustainability, Procter and Gamble the washing steps during the launch of the Kibera Sustainability Wash Centre

Human Needs Project (HNP) has partnered with Procter & Gamble to offer the local residents of Kibera slum, Nairobi, a radical solution to the traditional, exhausting search for basic services. HNP and its partners have launched their first ever community centre – the Kibera Town Centre—which will bring clean water and other essential services to slum residents. 

The centre will be a self-sustaining social enterprise, eventually owned and operated by a cooperative of community members, with its services sold at competitive prices but offered more reliably at a much higher quality. 

Procter & Gamble sponsored the Ariel Laundry Room which will offer local residents respite from a long and often painstaking laundry process. The design of the rooms and availability of scrubbing boards and machines will dramatically reduce women’s physical strain and scarring of hands as well reducing wash time by 33%. This pilot will help P&G and their partners find long-term scalable solutions and improve health and well-being for communities in need of clean water such as Kibera.

Virginie Helias, Global vice president, Sustainability, Procter and Gamble said: “When it comes to sustainability, Procter & Gamble believes actions speak louder than words, so we are doing just that in Kibera. We are incredibly honored to work in partnership with HNP in the Kibera Town Centre project to implement real solutions to key local issues, leveraging Procter & Gamble’s expertise in the fabric care sector,” she said. 

“We are reshaping old ways of working to build a better business and that sentiment is at the core of this project: reshaping old laundry habits to make for a better experience,” she added.  

Connie Nielsen, HNP Founder said the partnership with Procter & Gamble, a first of its kind has the potential scalability and could be replicated in other communities. “When I came to Kibera while filming it was apparent people faced incredible hardship in accessing clean water despite their huge potential,” she said. 

Together with David Warner, she founded HNP and created a concept that empowers the people while creating necessary conditions for the project’s long term sustainability through a thorough programme of capacity building, education and community engagement.

The centre located next to Olympic primary school, will provide enormous physical benefits for the locals such as access to clean water, clean energy, showers, and sanitation. Moreover, it will be a source of economic empowerment through facilities such adult education and skills training, a cyber café, a green market place, a health and information kiosk as well as a microcredit.