By Davis Otieno 

Dandora has been blessed to have three social halls in three different phases that is, Dandora phase two, phase four and phase five. These social halls were built way back by the late Member of Parliament Were and for a very long time the three social halls have been serving the people of Dandora very much. The good thing about social halls is that it caters for all community members and accommodates all types of sports that require a closed arena. 

Following the closure of schools during the pandemic, social halls were the only place where people could work out and do exercises. From morning till evening, groups and individuals could do their activities in shifts. This is because most public spaces that were there some time ago have been grabbed, which makes the social halls the only public facility available for use by the Dandora community.

I got to have a Conversation with one of the coaches and also some community members who use the facility to do their activities and they say that the facility has helped them a lot mostly during this pandemic. The coach says that since the pandemic began, he has been getting clients who he trains at a small fee.He said that most of the people that he has interacted with during the pandemic are mostly people who have been affected by the pandemic economically and also mentally. Most of them come to do exercise as a way of coping with stress and also to keep themselves busy for those who lost their jobs.

The biggest challenge that has been affecting the social halls is management. All of the three social halls are in bad condition, from the perimeter wall to the toilets. The coaches and the community members say that the maintenance of the facilities has not been properly executed by the management. One of the halls in Dandora phase five which is usually active has no water and their efforts to acquire a water tank have been in vain.

Their plea is for the facilities to be reconstructed and equipped with the necessary amenities especially water, which is also required to keep the toilets clean in order to prevent spreading of diseases which is likely to arise from unhygienic conditions. The perimeter walls were also a major source of concern as they are important for security.

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