Marianists of East Africa at PO Box 50504 , 00200 Nairobi - City Square , Nairobi Province 00200 KE - IMANI: FAITH IN ACTION

Our name, IMANI, has two meanings. In the Kiswahili language of eastern Africa “imani” means “faith”. This meaning makes “imani” an appealing acronym for the Marianist Brothers who began the programme in 1986. As an acronym, IMANI stands for Incentive from the Marianists to Assist the Needy be Independent. IMANI is an application of the virtues of faith, hope and love. Its overall mission is to: Raise the lowly to high places through programmes of spiritual and practical formation from a Christian identity. IMANI is a Marianist-sponsored agency, and it is committed to respecting the God-given life and dignity of each person. It maintains the Catholic position regarding the sanctity of human life, and because they are often the least advantaged, IMANI directs its attention primarily towards the poor and the youth. It offers its clients both

I) Training and practice in marketable skills, and
II) New hope for the future.

The strategy IMANI uses to achieve the first goal is to provide good technical training and aggressive job placement within a context of small business development. The strategy IMANI uses to offer its clients new hope for the future is personal support. The activities that flow from this strategy include counselling, self-awareness classes, Gospel Living sessions, Family Life Education, support groups for pregnant women and single mothers, business education, and a small business development loan scheme. These activities also support the first strategy because they provide an environment that strengthens the client’s personal motivation to learn and to succeed.

IMANI includes an overall administration plus three inter-related programmes, namely: Maria House Women’s Centre (MH), Chaminade Training Centre (CTC), Job Creation Programme (JCP). In order to express its concern for women, IMANI established MARIA HOUSE in 1988. Here distressed women, often pregnant and abandoned, receive both personal counselling and skills training. The Family Life Group (FLG) at Maria House assists its members in bringing their pregnancy to term. It also helps the women to be responsible mothers. Maria House aims “To empower needy women toward integrity by focus on the future through active participation, respect of life, self-dignity and appreciation through spiritual and practical formation”. Maria House offers training in bookbinding, dressmaking hairdressing, machine knitting and making glass beads, The hairdressing course lasts only six months. The other courses take about eleven months from January to December. Since some of the students at Maria House are mothers, the total programme includes Saragossa Nursery - an on site day-care centre for children from nine months to about four years of age. Children from four to six years of age are eligible for join the nursery class and then the pre-school unit. Saragossa Nursery offers a meal at mid-day to the children. These childcare services allow the trainees to concentrate their efforts on their respective training programmes. The trainees at Maria House receive first priority when selecting children for Saragossa Nursery.

IMANI runs the Chaminade Training Centre in the Mukuru kwa Njenga slum of Nairobi. This trade school offers basic level skills training to youth from the Mukuru slums. It also uses counselling, self-awareness sessions, FLG groups, and Basic Business Knowledge courses similar to those offered at Maria House. However in contrast to Maria House, CTC is an institution of formal education. The small classes at CTC serve the needs of young men and women who have not succeeded in bigger schools. The courses offered at Chaminade Training Centre include carpentry and joinery, catering, dressmaking, electrical instillation, hairdressing, metal work and tailoring. CTC offers an informal course in machine knitting to mothers. All of the students receive a meal in the middle of the day. Overall, CTC acts “To nurture the very needy people in Mukuru through counselling and skill training towards self-worth and Christian / human dignity”.

IMANI’s Job Creation Programme targets small manufacturing businesses on the east side of Nairobi for a business development programme. The JCP offers its clients training courses in business management skills and product development. The JCP also manages a small scale enterprise loan scheme. In addition, the JCP provides job placement services for graduates from both Maria House and the Chaminade Training Centre. Because the JCP is aware of small businesses looking for new employees, it can direct Maria House and CTC graduates to the clients of its loan programme. However, no connection exists between receiving a loan form the JCP and considering an IMANI graduate for a job. The activities of the JCP seek “To develop the needy into people of higher integrity in their human and Christian values through micro-enterprise development and job opportunities”. IMANI aims to help people living in poverty learn skills and attitudes that will empower them to make changes in their lives and to make a positive economic contribution to those around them. SELF SUPPORT In 2001 IMANI began a process to pay for more and more of its costs through a stronger effort to sell goods made by the trainees as part of their practical training. IMANI’s goal is recover the cost of training materials by selling quality products made by trainees. The process was inaugurated by a workshop at CTC on “Improving Training and Production” presented Mr. Peter Koemmelt from Germany. Mr. Koemmelt used production as a method of training in his earlier work in eastern Africa. Misereor, IMANI’s major partner, sponsored the workshop. Between August and October, a committee drawing together members from the teaching staff, the administration and the IMANI Board wrote a set of policy guidelines to enable CTC and Maria House to achieve this goal. IMANI’s annual staff development seminar in January 2003 carried the process farther along by building “a team commitment to plan and carry out changes in the way that IMANI achieves its mission”. The aim is helping the instructors develop the skills they need to use this new method of training their students. The JCP has also begun to generate some income from its activities. In 2001, it started to charge each client who received a Small-Scale Enterprise loan a fee of KSh 1,250 to cover the costs administering the loan. The JCP also expanded it activities to include loans to groups of women. In a loan to a woman’s group, the women guarantee to repay a member’s loan if she defaults in her repayments. During 2002 the JCP began to charge its clients a KSh 500/= fee for the Business Skills Development course that it offers to entrepreneurs. IMANI is pleased to note that the JCP clients have supported these measures.

(Back)