Vanessa Rogier – Conservation Manager for The Trash Punx
Powerful Change Begins When People Choose to Believe in Each Other
Thousands of miles from San Jose, in Kibra, Nairobi, Kenya, there is a man named Stephen Angila Onyango.
And Stephen and his team are changing their community.
Kibra—often known as Kibera—is one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, a place where inadequate waste collection and sanitation have been persistent challenges. Open drains can become clogged with garbage. Waste accumulates where people live and work. During heavy rains, blocked drainage contributes to flooding. These aren’t simply problems of appearance. They affect health, safety and everyday life.
Stephen decided to do something about it.
Through Jirani Recyclers Kenya and Greenshift for Development, he and his community aren’t waiting for somebody else to come clean up Kibra.
They’re doing it themselves.
And The Trash Punx has had the extraordinary privilege of helping them do it.
Over the past year, with support from The Trash Punx, Stephen and his team have organized community cleanups that have removed more than 134 tons of trash, while engaging 1416 volunteers who contributed 7,273 volunteer hours.
But those numbers tell only part of the story.
They’ve cleared clogged drainage systems.
They’ve planted trees.
They’ve brought women into leadership roles in community cleanups.
They’ve engaged young people and waste pickers not simply as volunteers, but as environmental educators.
And they’re teaching people that the plastic lying in the street isn’t necessarily garbage.
It can become something else.
Stephen’s team is collecting plastic, sorting it, shredding it and transforming it into useful products and building materials. With equipment supported by The Trash Punx—including a heat press—their vision is growing from community cleanups into something much bigger: a local circular economy that can create skills, income and opportunity.
Stephen describes it better than we ever could:
“Your support for our new heat press machine is more than an equipment donation — it is a transformative investment in people, dignity, innovation, and the future of our community.”
And then they walked.
From Kibra to Kwale, members of this team took their message beyond their own neighborhood—meeting people where they were and talking about waste management, environmental conservation, mental health and everyday life.
At one school alone, nearly 200 students, young mothers and teachers participated. The team brought environmental education, but they also brought sanitary pads, underwear and hygiene education for girls and young women.
Because their work isn’t really just about trash.
It’s about dignity.
That’s what makes Stephen’s work so remarkable.
A cleanup becomes environmental education.
Environmental education becomes community leadership.
Plastic waste becomes a resource.
Waste pickers gain new skills.
Women become leaders.
Young people become part of the solution.
And a community that has been defined far too often by what it lacks is demonstrating what it already possesses:
People willing to work for something better.
Stephen wrote something to The Trash Punx that we want everyone who has ever volunteered at one of our cleanups, donated, attended an event, supported a fundraiser or simply believed in what we’re doing to hear:
“Your commitment to standing with grassroots recyclers like us shows that powerful change begins when people choose to believe in each other.”
That’s you, San Jose!
Your support travels farther than you may ever see.
It traveled from San Jose to Kibra.
It helped put tools into the hands of people already doing the work.
It helped Stephen and his team clean their own streets, clear their drainage systems, recover plastic, educate their neighbors and build something that belongs to their community.
And we’re not finished.
The Trash Punx will continue walking beside Stephen and this remarkable team as they grow what they’ve started.
We’ll leave the last words to Stephen:
“Thank you for walking with us. Thank you for empowering us. Thank you for choosing Kibra.”
San Jose, Look What You Did!