DADSAC, a Swiss association born in Dandora
The association was founded in March 2021 by John Kirai Gitau, who lives in Dandora, and Oskar Crettenand, who had come from Switzerland that year to work with the Kenyan NGO Call Africa.
We are in Dandora, Kenya
Dandora is a neighbourhood of Nairobi built around the largest dumpsite in East Africa. Smoke rises from the burning waste. Many children work on the dumpsite from an early age. Drugs and crime are part of daily life here.
Our photo gallery shows the centre: the front of the building, the children eating under the tree, the vegetable garden.
RTS, Swiss public television, filmed a short report on the Dandora dumpsite.
Watch the RTS VideoThe Swiss team: funding and strategy
The Swiss team raises the money that keeps the centre running in Kenya. We are working towards a monthly budget of 840 CHF. The breakdown, line by line, is published on our Support Us page.
Main responsibilities:
- Finding donors and staying in touch with them.
- Connecting Switzerland and Kenya.
- Keeping the accounts and the paperwork.
Our team:
- Oskar Crettenand: co-founder and Executive Committee member.
- Viktor Crettenand: treasurer, who came to Kenya in February 2023.
- Amin Torrisi: vice-president and web manager, since September 2023.
The Kenyan team: the centre day to day
The centre is run by people who live in Dandora. They lead the training sessions and cook the meals.
Main responsibilities:
- Running the training sessions and the workshops.
- Supporting the young people through school and into work.
- Looking after the centre and staying close to the families.
On the ground:
- John Kirai Gitau: co-founder, he lives in Dandora and knows the local families.
John’s role in the community
John Kirai Gitau grew up in Dandora and still lives there. He is a father of four. Before DADSAC existed, he had already been supporting local children for more than ten years.
He knows the parents personally. We try to involve parents in what we do with their children, whenever that is possible. John is the link between the families and the team at the centre.
Our vision and our approach
Our vision
We want the young people of Dandora to have somewhere to go after school. In 2023, between 80 and 100 of them came every day. Further ahead, what matters is that they find training or a job.
Our approach (inspired by When Helping Hurts)
Four principles guide our work:
- Act with humility: build on local skills instead of importing outside solutions.
- Rebuild relationships: not treat poverty as a shortage of money alone: it damages relationships too.
- Foster self-reliance: draw on local resources and networks.
- Differentiate interventions: match the response (relief, rehabilitation, development) to the actual need.
The activities are run by the team that lives in Dandora. Day-to-day decisions are made there.
