Nairobi, Kenya, 13 January 2021 - UN-Habitat and the Foundation of the Kenyan international footballer, Victor Wanyama, have agreed to work together to support community development particularly for  women and youth in the country’s informal settlements.

UN-Habitat and the Victor Wanyama Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging to help vulnerable women, girls, children and youth living in informal settlements to access better urban services including water and sanitation and job opportunities. The two organizations will also promote affordable housing for the urban poor, support communities’ recovery from COVID-19 and provide skills development.

Victor Wanyama, who is captain of Kenya’s national team, Harambee Stars, and currently plays for Montreal Impact said: “the youth in Kenya’s urban areas and informal settlements deserve better jobs and better opportunities. We urge corporates to support this initiative so that we improve the lives of young people in Africa’s urban area. We begin with Kenya today but step by step we move to other countries.”  

UN-Habitat’s Director for Africa Mr. Oumar Sylla, referred to the agency’s work with the Foundation which provided 10,000 face masks to residents of  two of Nairobi’s biggest slums to protect them against COVID-19 last year.

“We successfully partnered with Victor Wanyama in mitigating COVID-19 challenges in Nairobi’s informal settlements and we shall upscale this collaboration into fully fledged national programme that transforms lives of young people in urban areas,” he said.