Holy Cross - District of East Africa

Dandora Parish

Holy Cross Catholic Parish, Dandora, is located eleven kilometers east of Nairobi center. Dandora is a relatively new low-cost housing area for the urban poor, established by the Nairobi City Commission with the WorldBank in 1977. The hopes for this model "site and service scheme" were to enable plot ownership by the poor with access to good water, garbage disposal, proper sewage disposal, and electricity. Mismanagement and corruption soon lead to a failure to provide most of these essential services and the needs of the rapidly growing population of urban poor had not been met.

In 1978, Holy Cross accepted pastoral responsibility within the Archdiocese of Nairobi and has sought to expand pastoral and developmental services to meet the demands of the growing population, which now numbers over 200,000 people. Most members of the parish are poor but warm-hearted, loving, and God-fearing. They come from different ethnic backgrounds and have brought with them varied gifts to enrich the faith, liturgies and prayer of one another in the parish. The parish is organized in Small Christian Communities which meet weekly to share on the Scriptures, to discuss common problems and to plan care of needy neighbors. Many of the ministries of the parish are handled through the Small Communities, including charity to the poor, teaching parents about Sacraments, animation of Justice and Peace activities, liturgical planning and ministries, and care for the sick.

In addition to attending to the spiritual needs of the community, the parish offers social ministry, including: nursery and primary education, family life education and counseling services, youth projects, social welfare services for the aged, refugees, and most destitute, health outreach to the sick and a low-cost dispensary, a library for reading and borrowing for students who lack study facilities, a revolving loan scheme to enable the poor to develop their plots and to encourage small scale business.

Dandora Parish Ministries

St. James Primary School

St. James Primary School is located within Dandora Holy Cross Catholic Church Compound. It developed in 2000 from the nursery school that had already been in operation for twenty years. Although the school is surrounded by city council and private primary schools, the Holy Cross Religious and lay group in Dandora saw a need for a church run school which would promote Christian living and moral behaviour. The school caters to the children in the area, yet it is not even able to absorb the number of students that come from the parish nursery school because of limited space. Its objectives for the future are to continue to grow to meet the need of the community while still providing quality education, addressing the intellectual, spiritual and moral needs of the children.

The school began from a good foundation and has set the highest academic standard. It is counted among the best school in the area and achieves the first position in Terminal Exams since its establishment.

Andre Dispensary

The parish runs a dispensary to provide affordable healthcare for the people of Dandora. The health program also includes outreach to the sick in their homes to provide them with necessary treatment. The health program is a collaborative effort with the Nairobi Archdiocese eastern deanery, which provides nurses to assist in the parish.

James Karaffa Business Academy for Women (JKBAW)

JKBAW is a ministry of the Post-Novitiate Brothers and Seminarians in McCauley formation house in Nairobi, and is located in Kibera slum. The JKBAW is named in memory of late Fr. James Karaffa CSC and is meant to empower the poor women of Kibera slum with business skills. It intends to teach business skills through workshops and other means while putting a spiritual value to group work and social living. The community in Nairobi, through their experience of working with slum dwellers, shows that most people live a life of hopelessness and sin due to material pover. Most people, especially women and children are wounded and in great need of healing. The JKBAW aims at making this healing a reality.