A safe space for stronger, resilient community
Tudor Moroto, Mombasa
A building within the informal settlement of Tudor Moroto in Simintini village has been adopted as a Resilience Hub. This Hub serves as a community centre, and is supporting community-led activities such as meetings, talks and will be developed as shelter space during extreme weather events.
The community members had expressed the need to establish a resilience hub to the Urban SHADE team in SDI Kenya during the initial research period in 2025 where the team members conducted several meetings to understand the health risks during extreme rainfall and flooding.
The Urban SHADE team has advocated extensively for a health outpost in this area with Mombasa County. The Mombasa county health officials have conducted an inspection of the Resilience Hub built within Tudor Moroto to consider whether a health outreach facility can be built within the community. The county government is yet to submit a report on the same.
This space was identified after meetings with community leaders and negotiations with some members who were using the empty space for selling alcohol. After negotiations with the people who occupied this space, the community has taken ownership of the building and made it into a Resilience Hub. It’s a one-storey building with three rooms and empty open space.
“We had meetings with the village elders who identified this community space. It was earlier abandoned and during the night people used to sell liquor there. The elders and community leaders negotiated with the people who used the space at night to take their business elsewhere
so that the community can benefit from empty space,” said Bessie Sarowiwa, field officer with SDI-Kenya.
The idea for the Resilience Hub was sparked by the Tudor Moroto community, facilitated by SDI-Kenya and is now championed by the Muungano wa Wanavijijij, a social movement of people living in informal settlements in Kenya. The hub is being used by the community to hold meetings and discuss various issues concerning them including those under the Urban SHADE project and discussing further interventions.
In Tudor Moroto, the houses near the Indian Ocean often get flooded during extreme rains. The community is envisaging this space as a safe shelter during such events. With small improvements to roofing, walls, and floors, the building can be a safe space during extreme weather events, such as floods, or extreme heat. SDI-Kenya with Muungano is looking to partner with organisations that can help provide food rations, blankets, medications which can help create a shelter space during extreme weather events.
With the removal of alcohol sellers in the area, the space has now become safe for families. It is now a space where children play during the evening, and women sit around and chat with their peers watching over children. The community is seeing a huge potential for developing this space further, especially a proper playground for children.
The community is also clearing the pathway to the hub actively. The community members including men, women and the youth have been regularly coming together to clear and improve pathways leading to the Resilience Hub. The work includes clearing and levelling the pathway with saruji (crushed stones) as well as covering the sewers along the route. These cleaning exercises will help make the route to the Resilience Hub more accessible to everyone in the community, especially children, elderly, and persons with disabilities.
“It is critical that once the County government is ready to provide health services through this Hub, the access roads are better,” said Michelle Koyaro, Research Manager with SDI-Kenya.
The team is also co-designing public health modules for health workers related to extreme heat and extreme rainfall.
SDI Kenya is working with a consortium of organisations which are supporting youth leaders to be trained in supporting community mental health needs.
“The mental health needs are coming out strongly in our meetings with the community. There are feelings of hopelessness during and after extreme weather events. We are working towards embedding mental health aspects with flood and heat management,” said Koyoro. She added that there is buy-in about including mental health in the modules and training for health workers.
(With inputs and photos from Mejuma Mwamunga and Blonada Mwende)