A group of teenagers led by Jobiese Richard fresh from high school came together to address the vices witnessed in their surrounding of Dandora slums.

Started by founding a community Based Organization called Community Transformative Agents (COTA) a charity organization registered in 2013 under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection with a vision of driving poverty out of Africa and having a youth responsible and progressive society, via empowering vulnerable communities by addressing their needs through advancing a holistic approach.

Our mission is empowering youths to be protagonists of peace, human dignity and be able to facilitate and achieve sustainable development and positive transformation of their communities.

While we envision having a just a society, friendly world in which youth are protagonists of peace and human dignity with sustainable development.

We have partnered with more than 10 organizations to improve the lives of families; including; youth development fund, Nairobi City County, Good Neighbours Kenya, among others, and here are some of our achievements up to 2020 December:

1. Since 2014 we have trained 2,500 youths on Entrepreneurship.  
2. Mentored 3 schools and provided 500 children with stationery, between 2016 to 2019.
3. Reached 1,000 families through distribution of food baskets during the covid-19 period, between 2020 and 2021 April.
4. Reached 500 girls in the informal settlements in Kariobangi through distribution of hygiene kits (sanitary towels).
5. Reached 1,500 street children/youth by distribution of clothes, shoes and sharing food every 25^th December from 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
6. Planted 1,000 trees in Dandora Area 4 along the river in 2018 during World Environment Day, Dandora 3 in field 41 and AIPCA church during World Youth Celebrations in 2019, Kariobangi – during World environment day 2020 and Mathare Kosovo. We have also done 13 community clean ups in Dandora, Kariobangi, Mathare between 2014-2020.
7. 10 youths have secured jobs from our daily postings. This is because of the monthly traffic that we got on our website. between 2020-2023 Janauary(www.jowtv.com)

Just as the world changes we have innovated and progressed to accommodate more young people and meet their needs via the below pillars:

1. WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE:

Tree planting and community/street clean ups then divide the areas among youth groups and distribute linear bags for youth groups to collect garbage at a small fee so that they can sustain their lives, and provision of hygiene kits to school going girls.

2. COTA SACCO (Economic Empowerment):

Training youths on entrepreneurship and access to loan facilities and posting of job opportunities for youths. Through forums, events and exhibitions to discuss how youths can access loans, expand businesses and grow financially.

After several years, and in order to have a mark on the trainings and exhibit magnificent growth, we registered COTA SACCO LIMITED – to train members on financial inclusion; entrepreneurship, inculcating a savings culture and boosting businesses, and also as a sustainable tool for the project.

3. Charitable Activities, Social Aid And Sanitary Towels Bank

Education, Clothes and Food and Nutrition:

Provision of food basket and clothes to the vulnerable in the community.

Offering mentorships and distribution of stationeries for pupils in schools within the informal settlements. Including Distribution of Sanitary Towels to Girls.

4. JASTON COLLEGE (Vocational Training):

Skills transfer is an efficacy to sustainable development, and it is against this backdrop that we registered Jaston College to offer Approved and Accredited Vocational Skills Training then Connecting Young People to Internships and Job Placements. The Fees is subsidized to meet administrative expenses. This is because we noted that most young people dropped out of schools mostly due to: poverty, which resulted to Teenage Pregnancy, Gender Based and Sexual Violence and HIV/AIDS, lack of school fees, while others complete but do not attain marks needed to pursue courses that they desired. With only 10USD one student is able to learn and complete one course

They include:

1. Cosmetology (Hairdressing, Beauty& Nails),
2.  Fashion and Garment Making,
3. Computer Application Packages,
4. Catering,
5. Baking & Pastry, 
6. Employability Skills,
7. Photography,
8. Film,
9. Entrepreneurship.
10. among others
11. With only 10USD one student is able to learn and complete one course be part of this great journey by donating here https://www.cotakenya.org/donate/