How did this get here?  In June 2019, we embarked upon a special study trip with Architects Without Borders and Art of Music Kenya Foundation to answer just that: How did the Dandora Landfill come to be and how has it managed to dominate the lives of neighboring inhabitants along its borders. Officially shut down by the government due to overflow several years back, illegal dumping operations run by local cartels continue through to today. Workers and their families rely heavily upon daily scavenging activities, where their hopes of finding discarded items of value runs high, and the incentive of having merchandise for local street markets means the possibility of having just enough to support their needs... for that one day. 

Most who enter the dumpsite never leave it. With limited access to quality education and extreme poverty within local communities, there are few choices which lie outside that of a future of scavenging in the Dandora Landfill. It's a future we are looking to change, however. Our joint project with Art of Music Kenya, Architects Without Borders and UN Development -- The Mwanga Centre -- looks to provide residents of these impoverished communities with the knowledge, skills and tools to break the socioeconomic cycle of dumpsite dependency. For good.