What We Do

  1. BACKGROUND

Keeping Alive Societies’ Hope (KASH) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) registered in 2007 (Reg No. OP.218/051/2007/0334/4875) that has been in social development, improving the quality of life of vulnerable and marginalized people. KASH has concentrated on improving the health and human rights circumstances of vulnerable groups in the communities where we work. Earlier on, we discovered that for us to get better result, we needed a closer partnership with the law enforcement officers so that we could address human rights violations that are common place against vulnerable persons. Our efforts in this area is widely acclaimed.

We have a strong reputation in the establishment of community groups and building their capacities which often includes: establishing their leadership structures, developing organizational structures – constitution and operational schedules- amongst other capacity building initiatives. KASH has since built the groups’ leadership capacity through regular trainings and through them easily reach out to their colleagues/peers with relevant information, messages and services.

KASH has played a critical role in Coastal, Western, Rift Valley and Nyanza, focused mainly in informal settlements in Kenya.

KASH is guided by its vision of “A Just, Healthy, and Economically Empowered Society” and the mission “to proactively influence the society to enable key and marginalized populations to access justice, health, good governance and empowerment through stakeholders’ engagement, networking, partnerships and collaborations” underpinned by the following core values:  i) Shared Confidentiality, ii) Transparency and Accountability, iii) Equity iv) Integrity, v) Commitment to service, and vi) Non homophobic.

KASH implements projects guided by its five (5) Strategic Pillars: i) Community Development ii) Socio-Economic Empowerment, iii) Integrated Health Services, iv) Human Rights v) Governance, Policy, Peace and Security.

Since then, KASH has implemented programs targeted at:

  1. Marginalized young women and girls
  2. Vulnerable members of the general Populations in informal settlements/slums
  3. Sex workers,
  4.  Men who have sex with men,
  5. Trans-Persons
  6. People Who Use Drugs

These programs have been the following areas:

  1. HIV and other health services,
  2. Human Rights
  3. Socio-economic empowerment for vulnerable populations.
  4. Democracy, Good governance, Peace and Security
  5. Informal Settlements upgrading
  6. Capacity-building of smaller Community Organisations
  7. Capacity-building of KASH

KASH has also executed projects across 22 counties – Kilifi, Mombasa, Kwale, Tana River, Kisii, Nyamira, Kisumu, Vihiga, Bungoma, Nakuru, Nairobi, Nandi, Kericho, Vihiga, Kakamega, Busia counties etc – in Kenya.

Our work revolves around our five (5) strategic pillars: 

  1. Health service delivery: focuses on provision of health services to Key Populations. Services offered include: HIV Testing and Counseling, STI screening, cervical cancer screening, condom distribution, moonlight outreaches, mapping hotspots, support groups, alcohol and substance abuse interventions.
  2. Human rights interventions: Because of the criminalized nature of our key audiences – Key Populations – human rights intervention have continued to be one of the areas where we put the most emphasis. Through the services of a team of trained paralegals we monitor and act on human rights violations. This team and an in-house legal officer offer solutions for such violations when they occur. Police intervention is a key component of this work.
  3. Democracy, Good governance, Peace and Security: this area was necessitated by our realization that the government(s) were not playing their roles in servicing the communities where we serve – particularly coming from the issues that Key Populations were bringing forth during our interaction with them. We therefore began engaging the community on civil rights and democracy issues. This aspect of our work seeks way to ensure that citizens – including Key Populations participate in the development of their regions by ensuring that there is accountability, transparency and equality in governments’ service delivery. They are also capacity built to ensure that they monitor their leaders’ actions so that they deliver on the promises they made while seeking to be elected.
  4. Economic Empowerment: efforts continue to be made to offer Key Populations new economic empowerment avenues. This is based on feedback from Key Populations that their economic situation often increase their vulnerability to HIV and other problem hence the need to have options around of income generation.
  5. Organizational Development and Systems Strengthening: We continue to embrace efforts at improving our organizational systems having realized that we need strong systems if new partners are to support our work – and by extension our beneficiaries.
  • WORK HIGHLIGHTS

The following articles and resources highlight reports by some of our past donors of the work KASH has done over the years:

  1. Open Society Foundations – https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/newsroom/osi-grantee-presents-successful-model-collaboration-between-sex-workers-and-law 
  2. Star Newspaper – https://www.the-star.co.ke/in-pictures/2021-06-06-group-helps-kisumu-sex-workers-fight-for-their-rights#google_vignette  
  3. Planet Romeo Foundation – https://www.planetromeofoundation.org/keeping-alive-societies-hope/ 
  4. FHI360 – https://www.fhi360.org/wp-content/uploads/drupal/documents/linkages-success-stories-kash-december-2016.pdf