Living Spring Initiative

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Living Spring Initiative We are a community movement where women, girls and young mothers lead the way.

Through local action and collective care, we turn challenges into opportunities and silence into voice.

Last Friday, our Executive Director Kenneth Achieng spent the day at Kibera Koyaro Center for the KGAN Technical Working...
08/09/2026

Last Friday, our Executive Director Kenneth Achieng spent the day at Kibera Koyaro Center for the KGAN Technical Working Group meeting, convened by ELEVATE HER.
It was a full day. We started with disability awareness and inclusion session with Mr. Samuel Odawo. Heard from Nairobi County, SHOFCO, and Children's Services department, and Got updates from Probation Office representative. Then came the heavy lifting, reviewing where KGAN stands, the SOPs, and plotting the calendar of events ahead.
As a member of Kibera Gender Advocacy Network, Living Spring Initiative was in the room. And honestly, that's the point. Too many organizations work alone. KGAN is where we stop duplicating efforts and start pulling in the same direction.
Grateful to ELEVATE HER for pulling this together, to our patron for her steady presence, and to everyone who presented and led sessions. Days like this don't make the news, but they make the work possible.
Onward.

Sometimes the problems feel too big. The gaps in the community. The needs that keep growing. It’s easy to stand at the e...
03/09/2026

Sometimes the problems feel too big. The gaps in the community. The needs that keep growing. It’s easy to stand at the edge and think, “What difference can one person make? What difference can one small organization make?”
Prof. Wangari Maathai told the story of the hummingbird. While the forest burned and the other animals stood watching, the tiny hummingbird carried water, drop by drop, to fight the fire. “What do you think you are doing?” the others asked. “The fire is too big.” And the hummingbird simply said, “I am doing the best I can.”
At Living Spring Initiative, we think about that hummingbird a lot.
We don’t have all the resources. We don’t have all the answers. Some days the challenges feel like a fire that won’t go out. But we show up anyway. One program. One community. One child. One woman. One drop at a time.
Because doing the best you can with what you have is not small. It is everything.
We are all hummingbirds.

Some Monday mornings, people sit in parking lots gathering courage just to walk into the office.At Living Spring Initiat...
25/08/2026

Some Monday mornings, people sit in parking lots gathering courage just to walk into the office.
At Living Spring Initiative, we spend our days building stronger communities. But lately, I’ve been asking, who’s looking after the builders?
Decent work is not just a paycheck and a contract. It’s waking up without that knot in your stomach. It’s being able to say “I’m struggling” without worrying it will cost you your credibility. It’s knowing that a hard conversation about performance won’t turn into public humiliation.
I’ve been in rooms where colleagues negotiated contracts with shaking hands because of what happened in last week’s meeting. I’ve watched brilliant program officers go quiet because speaking up burned them before.
This is not about being “soft.” This is about being human.
Workplace bullying isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s the slow erosion of confidence. Sometimes it’s being left out of emails you should be on. Sometimes it’s the silence when you finally say, “this isn’t okay.”
We cannot talk about sustainable development and ignore the mental health of the people doing the developing. If your team is surviving instead of thriving, your impact will always hit a ceiling.
At LSI, we’re learning to ask better questions. Not “why is their output dropping?” but “what are we asking them to carry?”
Mental health at work is a decent work issue. Full stop.
If you’re leading a team today, check on your people. Really check. Not just the deadlines. The human being behind the deliverable.
Because behind every statistic is someone who just wants to do good work without losing themselves in the process.
We can do better. Starting now.

Inclusion is not charity. It is justice. 🌱Every woman, girl, person with a disability, and every person from a marginali...
19/08/2026

Inclusion is not charity. It is justice. 🌱
Every woman, girl, person with a disability, and every person from a marginalized community deserves the opportunity to learn, work, participate, lead, and live with dignity.
At Living Spring Initiative, we believe inclusion must move beyond policies and words. It must be visible in our schools, workplaces, communities, public spaces, and digital world.
No one should have to prove that they deserve to belong.
We are committed to building communities where diversity is valued, barriers are challenged, and everyone has an opportunity to thrive.
Let's move from inclusion as an idea to inclusion as a lived reality.
🌱 Everyone deserves room to grow.

For far too long, girls and women with disabilities have been expected to prove they deserve education, employment, lead...
03/08/2026

For far too long, girls and women with disabilities have been expected to prove they deserve education, employment, leadership, healthcare, and equal opportunities. Yet every day, they demonstrate resilience, innovation, and leadership despite barriers that should never exist.

The real question is no longer, "Can they participate?" It is:

Are our schools, workplaces, health systems, climate initiatives, and public spaces truly designed to include everyone?

Inclusion is not about asking people with disabilities to adapt. It is about removing the barriers that exclude them.

As climate change continues to disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, climate justice must also be disability-inclusive. Climate action cannot be considered just if evacuation plans, clean water access, sanitation facilities, disaster response, and environmental decision-making exclude persons with disabilities.

The disability community has already proven its strength. It is now society's responsibility to prove its commitment to equity, accessibility, and meaningful inclusion.

Nothing about us, without us.

23/07/2026

We work with girls who still treat a packet of pads as a luxury. So when someone says Kenya has "strong menstrual health policies," we ask: Where is the pad?
The law is clear. Article 43 of the Constitution guarantees the right to health. The Basic Education (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Section 2(k)) mandates free sanitary towels for every girl in public school. The Menstrual Hygiene Management Policy, 2019-2030 sets the roadmap. The Health Act, 2017 locks in reproductive healthcare as a fundamental right. And Nairobi County just made history with paid menstrual leave for public employees.
Yet girls in arid counties, informal settlements, and hard-to-reach schools still miss class because the pads never arrived, the toilets have no water, and the bins do not exist.
A Class 7 girl who stays home four days a month loses 18 weeks over three years of upper primary, nearly half a year of school. Not because she cannot do math. Because she cannot afford a pad.
This is not a "girls' issue." It is an education issue. A health issue. An economic issue. A dignity issue.
We are not asking for new promises. We are asking for delivery.
County budgets. Supply chains that reach the last mile. Functional WASH facilities in every school. Workplace policies that catch up to Nairobi County. And community voices in every room where decisions are made.
A girl with a pad stays in school. A woman with period dignity stays in the workforce. A nation that invests in menstrual health invests in itself.
That is the Kenya Living Spring Initiative is building. One pad, one policy, one girl at a time.

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence is not "online harassment." It is power and control using digital tools as ...
21/07/2026

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence is not "online harassment." It is power and control using digital tools as the weapon.
We need to stop treating TFGBV like a tech problem that lives only on screens. It lives in the same power structures that enable violence offline, just faster, more scalable, and harder to escape.
A few things we keep coming back to:
Data is now a site of violence. Doxxing, deepfakes, location tracking, hacked accounts - the target is not just the body anymore. It is the digital identity.
Silence is exclusion. Every woman pushed offline is lost income, lost leadership, lost voice. This is an economic and democratic issue, not just a "women's issue."
The digital divide has evolved. Some people log on without fear. Others log on knowing abuse is waiting. Meaningful inclusion requires both access and safety.
AI is not the villain or the hero. It amplifies harm and it can detect harm. Governance and accountability decide which side wins.
Prevention starts with design. Platforms built with privacy as default, reporting that actually works, and abuse made harder to commit - that is where the real work is.
TFGBV cuts across. It is a workplace issue, a public health issue, a governance issue. No single actor fixes it alone.
The reframe that stays with me:
Technology is the medium. Power is the root cause.

Domestic work is real work. Every well-prepared meal, every safely managed kitchen, and every carefully planned menu ref...
20/07/2026

Domestic work is real work. Every well-prepared meal, every safely managed kitchen, and every carefully planned menu reflects knowledge, professionalism, and skill.
Yesterday, Living Spring Initiative proudly partnered with Molly's Kitchen to equip 10 domestic workers with practical culinary and workplace skills under Sustainable Development Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.
The participants received hands-on training in: Menu planning, Food safety and hygiene, Basic nutrition, Food presentation, Basic kitchen safety
This training was not about teaching people who "don't know how to cook." It was about recognizing domestic work as skilled work, strengthening professional capacity, improving workplace standards, and ensuring domestic workers are valued, respected, and fairly compensated for the expertise they bring into every home.
When we invest in domestic workers, we invest in safer homes, healthier families, decent employment, and stronger communities. Skills development creates opportunities, enhances dignity at work, and opens pathways for better livelihoods.
Our sincere appreciation goes to individuals who contributed towards this activity, Molly's Kitchen for facilitating such an engaging and practical session and to all our project participants who dedicated their time to learning, sharing experiences, and growing professionally.
At Living Spring Initiative, we remain committed to advancing SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth by promoting skills development, economic empowerment, and dignified employment for domestic workers.
We recognize that domestic work is skilled work-and skilled work deserves respect.

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