Help Kaiole Community Justice Centre Survive

Maryanne Kasina is an activist and writer from Nairobi, Kenya. She is the co-founder of Just Women Africa, a women's social movement that enhances women's social and political struggles across the informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. Maryanne is attempting to set up a feminist hub that will bring together progressive activists interested in pan-Africanism on a national level and international level.

She needs your solidarity and support to do this.

Maryanne wants to run the feminist hub out of the Kayole community justice centre. The Kayole community justice centre is a women-led organisation and it is based in the informal settlements of Nairobi. Over the past few years, Maryanne was the convenor of the Women in Social Justice Centre, which gave birth to Just Women-Afrika. Maryanne ran a political education programme, in which women would read radical materials, watch documentaries and write articles about the impact of colonialism in Kenya in the 21st century. She also ran an ecological justice programme and an 'art for liberation' programme in which local women created poetry, theatre productions and murals around gender-based violence and political corruption.

The feminist hub will be a safe space that promotes accountability. It will immediately act as a safe house for comrades fleeing gender-based violence within the community. Many of the programmes Maryanne has convened will also be run by the feminist hub organisers.

However, the feminist hub is not funded by any organisation. It is run based on donations, and due to the cost of living crisis in Kenya, many local organisers connected to the centre have struggled to offer solidarity and support. Recently, the hub has been closed by its landlord because Maryanne has been unable to pay the rent.

Maryanne needs financial resources to pay the landlord of the hub, re-open it, and continue to organise in her local community. If the campaign goal is met, the Kayole organisers will be able to feed local women, rapidly respond to gender-based violence in the community, and expand the political education programme to meet the needs of more women through printing reading materials and distributing them.

If the campaign goal is met, Maryanne will be able to pay for the following:

Feminist hub rent for 6 months, which is 108,000 Kenyan shillings

Water and electricity for 6 months, which is 24,000 Kenyan shillings

Security fee and garbage collection for 6 months, 6000 Kenyan shillings

Food for the next 6 months, 20,000 Kenyan shillings which is 120,000

Laptop, phone, printer and ink = 130,000

Bed and 2 mattresses = 55,000