Moonbeam Youth Training Center, Kenya

The video shows The Moonbeam Youth Training Centre in Mavoko, Nairobi. The Centre is a project of UN-HABITAT built with support from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuk. The purpose of the center is to improve housing in urban slums by training young people in low cost, alternative construction technologies. Trainees gain employable skills, leadership skills, and self-help skills that help them transform informal housing to sustainable, permanent construction. Young people who complete the training receive certification and apprenticeships in carpentry, roofing, brick manufacture and bricklaying as well as other vocations.

With investment from local organizations and businesses, young men and women can significantly improve standards of living, including sanitation and security, for their communities while training for future employment. In addition to hands-on construction training, the program includes training in entrepreneurship and business management skills, with the objective that graduates can start and sustain viable enterprises that increase capacity in underserved communities, and enable future businesses to hire others. The project is an example of a multi-purpose, dynamic development initiative that involves youth as active rather than passive participants in achieving its goals. The trainees' work creates the project's own infrastructure, since the facility that the trainees are building actually serves as a training center when it is complete. The collaboration will eventually include youth from the informal settlements of Kibera, Mavoko, Githongoro and Thikain in Kenya.