A Partnership That's More Than Just a Handshake: Zakatek x Diani Youth

Some partnerships happen in boardrooms over cups of overpriced coffee. Others happen under the sun, feet in the sand, hands sifting through plastic waste that should have never made it to the ocean in the first place. Ours with Diani Youth? Happened right there on the beach — where change actually begins.

This past Saturday, the Zakatek team had the privilege of rolling up our sleeves and joining Diani Youth on one of their regular beach cleanups. If you haven't heard of them: Diani Youth is a grassroots group that has quietly, consistently, and without much fanfare been showing up every week to clean Diani's shores. No cameras required. No applause needed. Just people who decided that complaining wasn't enough.

We went to lend a hand. We left with something much bigger.

From Plastic Waste to Sustainable Infrastructure

At the heart of this visit was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Zakatek and Diani Youth — a formal commitment to turn what has been a shared ethos into a shared programme.

Here's what that means in practice: the plastic waste collected during Diani Youth's cleanups will be channelled into building infrastructure for our hydroponics project at our Kikambala site. Waste that once ended up in the water will now help grow food. Rubbish becomes resource. The problem becomes part of the solution.

This isn't greenwashing or a one-off photo opportunity. It's a supply chain for good — one that connects environmental action directly to food security and community self-sufficiency. That's the kind of loop we want to keep closing.

Why This Matters

There's a tendency in the development sector to think big and move slow. Diani Youth are the opposite. They think local, move weekly, and have built something that actually sustains itself because it's rooted in the people who live there.

For Zakatek, partnering with groups like this is not a detour from our core mission — it is the mission. Zakah and Sadaqah are most powerful when they fund solutions that multiply: where one act of giving triggers a chain of benefit that extends far beyond the original gesture.

Plastic off the beach. Food on the table. A community that doesn't need to wait for someone else to save it. That's the chain we're trying to build.

A Note to Diani Youth

To every member of the Diani Youth team — thank you. Not for the photo, not for the MOU, but for being the kind of people who show up even when no one is watching. Your consistency is a lesson most organisations never learn. We're honoured to walk this road with you.

And to everyone reading this: this is how change actually happens. Not in one dramatic gesture, but in the quiet, stubborn refusal of ordinary people to accept that things can't be better. Keep showing up. Keep building. We're only getting started. 🌱