Dandora, Nairobi is home to one of the largest dumpsites in the world. Many of Dandora’s 300,000 residents survive by scavenging the 30-acre dumpsite for items to sell or trade. Life in this underserved urban slum is hard and the situation for mothers and children is dire.

In March 2017, a passerby heard a baby's desperate cries coming from the dump and found a newborn baby boy stuffed inside a paper bag, having been abandoned and left to die among the heaps of rotting garbage. The baby was immediately taken to a brand new maternity clinic that had opened its doors to the public that very day. With its state-of-the-art equipment, the staff was able to save the baby’s life. They gave him the name Moses.

Baby Moses’ story would have surely ended tragically had not alumni from the University of Notre Dame cared about the plight of the people who live in the slums of Dandora and committed themselves to bringing health care to this forsaken city. They reached out to MATTER and we procured the medical equipment and supplies to outfit a 50-bed, 2 story hospital specializing in labor and maternity services – the first of its kind in Dandora.

Baby Moses was the first of hundreds of patients who are living testimonies to the impact the hospital is having on the community of Dandora as it stands as a beacon of health, hope and dignity.