Kaso Gataro Project: Empowering families, transforming futures

Launched in 2020 by KASO Foundation, the Gataro Project was born out of one simple question: How can we help families break the cycle of poverty without losing their dignity?

The project began with 10 families, most of them struggling street vendors and parents trying to survive each day. KASO Foundation stepped in not with charity, but with tools for transformation. Through hands-on training in marketing, sorting, and food handling, Gataro equipped these families with real, usable skills, skills that could turn their daily hustles into stable, dignified livelihoods.

What started as an experiment in empowerment soon became a blueprint for community resilience. Mothers who once sold small goods on the roadside are now organized, trained, and earning income through structured community work. Fathers have learned how to market locally produced goods. The project didn’t just give them knowledge, it gave them confidence.

But Gataro’s impact goes deeper. It’s about restoring self-worth, especially for children born in hardship. By creating opportunities for parents, the project indirectly protects the next generation, ensuring that children grow up seeing hope, not despair.

“We don’t rescue people, we remind them that they still have the power to rebuild,” says Hagenimana Shafi one of the project coordinators.

Today, the Gataro Project stands as a living example of KASO Foundation’s philosophy: real change begins at home, within families, through skill, compassion, and community.

The vision doesn’t stop here. KASO plans to expand Gataro’s model to other communities, empowering more vulnerable families with the same life-changing approach, turning survival into self-reliance, and dependence into dignity.