Pamoja Imara

The inspiration behind Pamoja Imara emanated from the fact that some of us are lucky enough to have greater access to food than others. How could we then who need not fear where the next meal is coming from contribute to our fellow people in this global world?

The subsequent answer was Pamoja Imara, a committed bunch of people. Our backgrounds and professional lives are diverse but we have a common grounding in the need of coming together to contribute in partnership to the betterment of those marginalized in society. Our focus will be on community-based initiatives promoting the public good. We believe these initiatives are often the most effective and sustainable. Our name Pamoja Imara means “Steadfastly Together.”

Our unique way of raising money, having dinners and contributing what we used to make the meals, celebrates and allows us to recognize how fortunate we are to have these meals each day and also contributes to projects that will better the lives of those not able to have access to several resources. This fundraising program we call “Meals That Matter”.

We have selected one project, which we hope will be the first of many. We are collaborating with the village of Kaptarakwa in Kenya to build a community library.

Pamoja Imara believes donated money from the international community should augment the scope of what locally available support and funding can do – they go hand in hand. We also believe fundraising does NOT have to be overwhelming and difficult. Pamoja Imara promotes the idea of fundraising through creative strategies that gather small amounts of funding while everyone is having fun, interacting, building relationships and learning in this informal manner.

We seek to create a different perspective, where we strongly believe it is about partnering with local communities and making their ideas our projects. Along with that goes the principle that ultimately the decisions about the projects, for example, design and how to proceed should rest with the community. We want to create partnerships that are based on trust and a unified objective of sustainability.