Social entrepreneurs bring social change and help alleviate poverty using tools that help develop a profitable company. They also seek to help solve challenges such as insecurity, food shortage and environmental degradation using sustainable business models. This approach of addressing poverty must be considered as an alternative economic development strategy that will address the wellbeing of people and the environment.Despite decades of donor funding and millions of dollars to alleviate poverty in Kenyan slums, conditions have become increasingly challenging and these areas continue to grow at an alarming rate. Traditionally most donor funding has come from western countries. However, this is no longer sustainable. Kenyans have also looked to the government for solutions. Unfortunately, they too, have not been able to provide sustainable solutions. This has led to alternative solutions provided by the private sector through social entrepreneurs that provide more sustainable employment opportunities and business based approaches.One such example is David Kuria. After having worked for various non-governmental organisations and not seeing much change, David decided to tackle the issue of sanitation by providing clean & hygienic public toilets that he called ‘Iko-toilets’. These toilets have provided attractive, safe sanitation facilities in different parts of Kenya and he has used this as a platform to encourage public dialogue about sanitation and health, while providing employment to hundreds of people. His approach goes beyond the Iko-Toilets. In addition, he rents out the space surrounding the Iko-toilets to other entrepreneurs to provide services such as hair cutting, shoe shining and money transfer services. The rental income then pays the overhead costs of running the toilets.Many of us dream of living in a clean and safe environment, but unless we take responsibility to help achieve this, our dream will remain simply that! Providing sustainable job opportunities and encouraging entrepreneurship to alleviate poverty restores dignity back to people who have lost hope for the future. Urban poverty in Kenya has only spanned two generations and therefore it is possible to break the cycle.We have all been created in the image of God and as God’s children the helplessness and powerlessness identified with poverty cannot be permitted to exist as a culture. Providing sustainable social entrepreneurial opportunities helps to restore dignity, as people are able to work and feed their families and plan for a more promising future.Stella NdihoeduKenya International Board/Kenya Vision Team