Duara Foundation
Duara proposes a more dynamic, bottom-up and reciprocal form of international development cooperation. Through this it hopes to contribute to a more equal world. Duara supports local and international organisations in poor urban ghetto communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
The board members of Duara have been involved with the projects of Maji Mazuri in the Kenyan ghetto Mathare Valley since 1989. The long-term relationship between Maji Mazuri and Duara has resulted in a strong commitment of the board members to Maji Mazuri. Each year board members travel at their own expenses to work in Kenya.
Vision
Based on its long-term experience, Duara has developed a unique vision on international development cooperation. Duara defines its position, in relationship to partners in the South, in terms of personal friendship, equality and reciprocity. Duara aims to encourage local knowledge, initiatives and notions of ownership with regard to community development. Duara considers this approach the key to self-sustainability and long-term and structural development and change. Duara distinguishes itself from other organisation by its long-tem personal commitment to the projects, and by working in the projects on a voluntarily basis at least once a year. Duara members travel and work in Kenya at their own costs.
History
Following more than a decade of working together with the Maji Mazuri Centre in Kenya as an informal organisation, Duara was officially registered as a foundation on 24 December 2003. It was 1989 when Naomi van Stapele and her twin brother Saul first met Mrs. Wanjiku Kironyo in The Netherlands. Mrs. Wanjiku Kironyo, director of Maji Mazuri, and 6 of her pupils from a youth group in Mathare Valley, a ghetto in Nairobi, were invited to the Netherlands to join a conference on alternative didactic methodologies. Part of their contribution to the conference was a drama performance about their lives and dealing with trauma’s in the ghetto of Mathare Valley. The next year, 1990, the twins visited their new friends in Kenya. This was the start of a friendship and working relationship that now already has been going on for 22 years.
