Kenya’s Kibera slum overflows with street art — latimes.com 

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Feature on Solomon Munyundo, a.k.a Solo 7 

Solo 7 -- Toi Market

Solo 7--Kibera

Water Sci Technol. 2009;60(10):2669-76.

Phosphorus budget in the low-income, peri-urban area of Kibera in Nairobi (Kenya).

Kelderman P, Koech DK, Gumbo B, O’Keeffe J. UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, PO BOX 3015, Delft DA, 2601, The Netherlands E-mail: p.kelderman@unesco-ihe.org ; j.okeeffe@unesco-ihe.org.

Kibera, located in Nairobi, Kenya is one of the largest (235,000 inhabitants) low-income areas in East Africa. Surface waters in Kibera show high pollution levels with respect to SRP (soluble reactive phosphorus; range: 2-10 mg P/L), coming from the uncontrolled wastewater discharges in the area. The different P production and consumption values in Kibera were estimated using interviews (155 interviewed) as well as detailed P house-keeping for five representative families. The results show that highest P consumption comes from food, in particular cereals. Highest P production came from urine (55% of the total) and faeces (31%), with relatively lower contributions from grey water and solid wastes. The overall P budget in Kibera amounted to around 9 x 10(3) kg P/month. This is equivalent to 0.47 g P/person yr, both for P production and consumption, with a relative error of 20%. Comparing with the estimated P outflows via the Kibera surface waters, around 65% of the P produced in Kibera will leave the area. In future ECOSAN techniques such as urine separation could well be applied for efficient recycling of these waste sources.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan urged Kenya Monday to accelerate efforts to improve living conditions in Nairobi’s squalid slums, which experts say could pose a threat to stability and national security.

Annan chaired weeks of talks last year that gave birth to the country’s coalition government and ended post-election violence in east Africa’s biggest economy that killed at least 1,300 people and drove another 300,000 from their homes.

The capital’s fetid shantytowns became ethnic battlegrounds during the crisis, and aid workers say the slums — with their huge numbers of marginalized youths — are “ticking time bombs” ahead of the country’s next poll in 2012.

“It is slow, could be faster, but it is absolutely essential … we must work together for clean drinking water, clean sanitation,” Annan told reporters in Kibera, which is home to some 800,000 people sharing just 250 hectares (618 acres).

He said the continued resettlement of people from makeshift homes made of tin and mud bricks into apartment-style housing would improve their health and boost the economy.

“When fewer people call in sick it saves money for the government and for companies,” he said during a tour of the slum’s litter- and sewage-filled alleys. While progress had been slow, he said, it was still “very encouraging.”

Kibera is Africa’s biggest slum, but Nairobi also has several other informal settlements, in which an estimated half of the capital’s 4 million population live.

Annan was touring Kibera to inspect work carried out under a joint initiative between the government and U.N.-agency HABITAT.

Monday, President Mwai Kibaki briefed him on progress the government had made toward much-needed reforms that were agreed during last year’s talks mediated by the former U.N. chief, according to a statement from Kibaki’s office.

The government is under growing pressure from Kenyans and donors to implement the wide-ranging changes, end corruption and prosecute high-profile masterminds of the post-election chaos.

Source – New York Times

“You can define a professional film production as one that has big names, top-of-the-line equipment, and a multi-million dollar budget. By these standards, Hot Sun Films can’t compete. But, instead, if you define a professional film crew as one that has passion, discipline, and an understanding that in order to succeed, everyone must take their work seriously, then Hot Sun Films has one of the most professional crews around.”

Brian Ekdale, Graduate Student in Communications, University of Wisconsin, USA

Vanochtend hebben Janna en ik een tour door Kibera gemaakt. Kibera is de op een na grootste sloppenwijk van Afrika. Om 9.00 uur werden we opgehaald door Freddie bij Adams Arcade die in Kibera woont om ons rond te leiden.

Via de markt waar we zelf regelmatig boodschappen doen zijn we naar Kibera gelopen. Je loopt dan van redelijke wegen naar steegjes, naar modderige steegjes tot erger… En al snel liepen tussen de golfplaten hutjes. Dat is op zich niets nieuws voor ons, want dat zien we wel vaker, maar de omvang van Kibera maakt wel indruk. Het is echt groot en er wonen zo verschrikkelijk veel mensen (huidige schatting is 1,5 miljoen mensen).

Allereerst hebben we een weeshuis annex school bezocht. Op het weeshuis waar Esther vandaan komt valt best wel wat aan te merken, maar dit was echt 100 keer erger. Een smerige troep en heel slechte voorzieningen, maar wel veel kindjes die hier van afhankelijk waren. Gelukkig waren de meeste kinderen die daar ook sliepen naar een andere locatie verplaatst, maar je kan je niet voorstellen dat je eigen kinderen daar zouden moeten verblijven.

Daarna hebben we een aantal projecten (zoals bijvoorbeeld Power Women Group Kibera) bezocht die spullen maken die overal in Nairobi worden verkocht (vooral souvenirs). Van de opbrengst kunnen de meewerkende families eten kopen of hun kinderen naar school sturen. Een ander project was een plek waar je naar de wc kan (best handig), even kan douchen (ook wel fijn in die blubbertroep) en waar je ook je eten kan koken. Men probeert minder afhankelijk te worden van houtskool, want dat is bepaald niet bevorderlijk voor het aangrenzende Ngong Forest…

Het afval ligt echt overal. Ook de trein naar Kisumu rijdt hier dwars door heen. Persoonlijke hygiene lijkt me in deze omgeving echt onmogelijk. Ik denk dat je de sterftecijfers aan onbenullige aandoeningen niet wilt zien voor deze buurt. Wat wel positief is, is de houding van de mensen. We hebben ons geen moment onveilig gevoeld en iedereen lijkt te waarderen dat je de moeite neemt om de omstandigheden te bekijken waarin zij moeten leven.

Meer foto’s zijn hier te vinden. Neem contact op met Kibera Tours als je ook wilt gaan. Een deel van het geld dat wij voor de tour hebben betaald, komt ten goede aan de projecten die we hebben bezocht.

Children at the Nyumbani Children's Home with its founder

The Nyumbani Children’s Home was founded in 1992 by Father D’Agostino, a Jesuit priest and physician, in response to the need of the increasing numbers of abandoned and orphaned HIV+ children. Today the orphanage at Nyumbani, located outside of Nairobi, is home to 110 HIV+ orphans who receive medical care, psychological services, and attend public school until they can become independent adults.

The Kibera slum

Nyumbani launched the Lea Toto Program (Swahili for “to raise a child”) in 1998. It is an outreach progam to HIV+ children providing home based care to them so that they could access medical care,  psychological support and even basic needs such as food and safe drinking water.  This program provides services to children and their families in the most impoverished areas of Kenya including the Kibera slum outside of Nairobi where over  one million people live in an area smaller than the size of New York City. It is the largest slum in Africa and the second largest slum in the world.

Satellite view of Kibera slum

There are many videos like this one posted on u.tube about Kibera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9crGUNUP22I.  It’s hard to imagine without seeing some video footage and I imagine it will be overwhelming to be there in person.

Nyumbani Village in Katui

Nyumbani Village was built on 1000 acres of property given to the program by the government. The village was established to address the needs not only of orphans but also of the elderly who in the past have relied on thier children to be available as part of their extended family but have been left without them as the middle generation has succombed to AIDS. At the village, grandmothers, or shoshos, live in cottages with 10 children and create new blended families that foster healing, hope and opportunity while the HIV+ children receive ongoing medical care,  psychological support and attend school. The grandmothers also receive support and care in this extended family environment and community setting. In addition the village operates a sustainability program with solar energy, farming, and other resources.

During our trip we will be volunteering at each of the Nyumbani sites.

The Volunteer is documentary which follows the journey of Hugo Chittenden, who having faced and come through a life threatening illness decides to make a change. His journey takes him to the notorious slum of Kibera in Nairobi (Kenya), where he volunteers and cares for orphans affected by HIV.

Deeply moved by the experience he pledges to raise funds to renovte and re-equip a medical clinic and community centre for a local charity. As this challenging project evolves, it becomes clear that with just one week to complete the task tensions, emotions and stress will be running high.

the volunteer is an emotional journey that documents one man’s courage to make a difference in this world. It was very inspiring to watch and we highly recommend it.

source: http://www.thevolunteer.com/

I was born into a life, where life was no life, in the ghettos of Kawangware, otherwise known as Ngwaro, where it is hell everyday. My best friend, Akinyi, came from Laini Saba in Kibera. Their house was very close to the railway line such that if they were in the real estate business in London, they would advertise it as thus: One room available, very close to overground rail link – two minutes walk from house INTO train!!! Ours was a shack next to the market. No, not Kawangware market (that’s our shopping centre, our mall.), but soko mjinga… lots of mutura and sambusa sold by the road side, and vegetable vendors open till mid-night with their kerosene lanterns.
I was a girl in the hood, life misunderstood, nowhere I could go, from the hell that I know. No community that cares about a girl’s hopes and fears. I was going insane, yet who could I blame? Where were our leaders? Oh, I know… in the leafy suburbs of Karen and Lavington, hidden behind high electric fences and inside heated pools, munching on Quiche and Kebabs, awaiting their chauffeur driven kids to be dropped back from the after school sports clubs. But I didn’t care then, for we had our own playing grounds that needed no car rides. Infact, I didn’t know we lived in poverty until I grew up; until age opened my eyes and made me see the differences in our God-forsaken lives. I looked at the lives ‘they’ led, then looked back at mine – poverty, injustice and crime, all of the time. Violence and hate, no hope of escape. There is no way you could understand, you don’t live in my land. You probably have never been there, only reading about it in the papers, and watching our poor souls on TV. Expectations were low. No one cared what I knew, or if I knew anything at all, or how bad it was knowing. And the school I went to… lets leave that for another day. Teachers’ apathy, uncaring faculty, no help from nobody, distraction surrounding me… I was just a girl growing up, thinking about hooking up, no one to tell me no, not here in the ghetto. My folks too busy trying to make ends meet, they didn’t even think of me. If they did, there was no time to show it. They had problems of their own, so I was all alone. Then it happened.
What’s going on with me? See, my body was changing. Who can I ask these things, what the hell’s wrong with me? My friend Akinyi was killed only a week gone, so no one really to talk to. There was a rito in her neighbourhood, because the tenants don’t want to pay rent. So tenants and landlords started fighting… neighbour against neighbour. Brother against brother. Landlord against landlord. Isn’t it easy, that if you rent a house you expect to pay rent? You see, tenants in Akinyis neighbourhood are different. When they rent a house, they expect to own it after a while. That’s what killed Akinyi. Someone didn’t want to pay rent anymore, and didn’t want to move out of the property. So they started a fight in Kibera. A machete in each hand, slaying anything that was on their way. All hell broke loose and it was every man for himself, and God for them all. For Akinyi… it was her and her Maker. Rest in peace, my dear friend.
Drugs take my pain away, I’ll take them everyday. Give me another drink; yes, I will wait for it to cool, but be quick… I am losing my patience. What happened to me last night, why can’t I stand upright? Cramps overtaking me; what the hell’s wrong with me? A few more weeks go by; I’m puking day and night. Doc says I’m carrying a child inside of me. Doc must be mad! I need to be carried, not to be carrying!!!
Where did my life go wrong? Who else can sing my song? Where does the blame belong? How long can this go on? I was born in the ghetto, I am still in the ghetto, and now I bring another life in the ghetto… who will break this cycle? Who will remove this curse that lingers upon my head?

I have had so many things happen in my life, some good, some bad and some just… there. I keep telling myself that it is life, that it’s how life is destined to be. I try so hard not to spend much of my time feeling sad, so I am mostly a happy and ‘smily’ kind of girl. I don’t let anything turn my smile into a frown, or my sunshine into rain. And if anyone turns my sunshine into rain, I don’t stay indoors looking out the window wishing – ‘if only!’. No. I run out and jog in the rain. I splash in the water paddles like I have always done since I was a kid. I watch for the rainbow and count the colours every time. I pick my favourite rainbow colour, and colour my world in it. I watch the grasshoppers, and listen to the birds.
This is my world.

(The author of the above article has requested anonymity. She now resides in the UK, working bila ma-paper and helping her parents who still live in Ngwaro. Her son is now 12 and resides with her parents. As you would expect, ‘Prince’ is now the “chali wa mtaa”… what with internet and a laptop at home. Hommie gear sent from UK and a blackberry that turns even his local ‘kajora’ (councellor) green with envy? I ask my friend what the use of all this stuff is to a 12yr old. She tells me… “how else will they know his mother lives abroad?”)

From a human rights perspective, slums pose a variety of problems: the rights to housing and healthcare (art. 25 of the Universal Declaration) are only the most obvious ones. We can all imagine how the rights to education, standard of living, privacy, property etc. are violated as well in slum conditions.

More on slums here, here and here. Something about the related topic of overpopulation is here.

Lights in homes illuminate the barrios of Caracas, Venezuela, at dusk. In 2008, the number of people living in cities for the first time exceeded those in rural areas worldwide, a historic turning point. One-third of urban dwellers, approximately 1 billion people, live in slums. The United Nations predicts that number will double in the next 25 years. Photo by Jonas Bendiksen.

(source, source)

What is a slum? The definition is hazy. The United Nations' definition of a slum encompasses several factors, including the kind of building construction, the level of services provided by the municipality, land ownership, and the rates of crime and poverty. "With 1 billion people living in the slums worldwide, there's no way that they all relate to their surroundings in the same way," Bendiksen says. In the Caracas barrios, pictured above, "the building construction is more solid, but crime is much worse than in other slums; there is more lawlessness." Photo by Jonas Bendiksen.

(source, source)

Other collections of human rights images are here.

Kibera is one of the largest slums in Kenya, with approximately 1 million people living in an area of around a square mile.

Kendal Martel, a photographer, is taking up a fight for people who struggle to survive. She is doing it her own way, one click or shutter speed at a time.

After seeing first hand the poverty and squalor faced by the people who live in the slums of Africa and their desire to rise above it all, Kendal decided to showcase her photography in an exhibit, “Until the Last Seed Grows,” which features the people of Kibera, Africa, with alternately haunting and joyful images that underscore the complexities of these resilient people.

While in Africa, Martel, a graduate of Diboll High School and student at Stephen F. Austin State University, spent time in Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa, which holds close to a million people in an area three-quarters the size of Central Park. There she met members of the Haki Self-Help Group, a grassroots organization dedicated to addressing some of the most pressing problems faced by the people of Kibera: poverty, HIV/AIDS awareness, at-risk children (including the approximately 100,000 children orphaned by parents who died of AIDS) and the unequal treatment of women.

To learn more about the exhibit (that already took place) and to inquire about hosting the exhibit elsewhere, go here (which includes Kendal’s email address).

Photo credit:  “Goddess” by Kendal Martel

Posted by: Laurel Delaney

Not to brag (ok, maybe a little!) but I will be here for three glorious weeks in December and January!

(Thanks for the image, Wikipedia!)

I will be in Mumbai doing research in the Dharavi slums on the slum-clearing project there; partly because my passion lies in urban poverty and the slums, partly because my beloved Kibera is currently going through a slum-clearing project also, and partly because it’ll serve as the research paper I need to write for EPIIC.

On the fun side, there are several students in EPIIC who will be in India, along with a good number who are specifically going to be in Mumbai. It’s been too long since I’ve been in a foreign country with friends (oh, five months and a half months?) and I’m looking forward to exploring the city with friends! My list of places to visit while I’m in Mumbai definitely include the Elephant Caves and Haji Ali Dargah but any further suggestions are greatly appreciated!

This winter will be interesting; getting my wisdom teeth taken out, applying for internships for the summer, meeting my brother’s girlfriend (who will be visiting from Australia!), and three weeks in India in the slums! December can’t come soon enough, though

The scourge of so-called “flying toilets” – where human waste is put into a plastic bag and tossed into the air, landing on roads or in gutters – has plagued the slums of Kenya’s capital Nairobi for decades. But an innovative project in the slum of Kibera has dramatically cut down on the problem by converting human waste into gas that can be used to fuel cookers and other devices.

Roseline Amondi cooks githeri at the community kitchen powered by gas from the community toilet in Kibera, Kenya

Roseline Amondi is cooking up a storm. Today’s menu for the tiny restaurant she runs is githeri, a traditional dish consisting of beans and maize.

Amondi cooks every day in this community kitchen. She will then take the food back to her kiosk to sell to her customers. She says the community stove saves her a lot of money that she would otherwise spend on charcoal or wood.

“Before the gas started working, I was using almost 100 or 200 [shillings] per day for cooking any meal in the house, but right now, it is only 10 bob [shillings] per meal,” she said. “It is very cheap. If I cook two different types of food, I may use only 30 shillings for the whole day. That is wonderful.”

The gas that Amondi uses comes from an unlikely source, the community toilet. This is a rare sight in Kibera, where up to 200 people can share a single latrine in neighborhoods that have no electricity or running water.

The TOSHA community toilets in Kibera slum

The toilet and kitchen are run by a coalition of five community groups calling themselves TOSHA (Total Sanitation and Hygiene Access). “Tosha” also means “enough” in the national language Ki’Swahili.

Some 600 people a day use the toilets for a small fee.

The human waste is transported via pipes into an underground tank, where it is converted into bio-gas.

The gas is then piped up to the community kitchen, where members can use the stove for pennies per pot.

Groups often rent out the facility’s top floor for meetings and functions. TOSHA earns some $400 each month renting out the facility, the community kitchen and use of the toilets.

Aidah Binale is a coordinator with Umande Trust, a development group that partnered with TOSHA to formulate the project.

She says it was difficult at first for community members to accept the gas.

“People will have the idea of, ‘Ah, no, I can’t cook from there, it is from [human] waste.’ Right now we are still trying to capacity build, we are trying to tell them [there is] nothing wrong,” she explained. “We get to have more visitors from different countries coming to visit us. We make sure that when they come to the office, we tell them, ‘Let’s go down there and have tea.’ So when the community comes and sees us drinking tea, they are thinking, ‘Ah, this is a foreigner taking tea. These people are taking tea, we can also cook.’”

Running water and sanitation facilities are virtually non-existent in slums like Kibera, where most people earn less than $1 a day. Human waste in plastic bags is often dumped on roads, alleys and gutters.

But locals say there has been a dramatic reduction in these so-called “flying toilets” since the bio-gas center was constructed two years ago.

Roseline Amondi is also secretary of TOSHA.

“At the time we were using flying toilets, there were so many diseases around us like cholera,” she noted. “Once an outbreak of cholera occurs, we are the sufferer. Many of us died, some got into the hospitals. But right now, for the last three months, there was an outbreak [of cholera] within Nairobi, but we were safe because of the bio-center.”

Project supporters say the TOSHA Bio-Gas Centre is a model for communities everywhere, especially those dealing with power shortages.

Paul Muchire, communication manager with Umande Trust.

“We have the problem of [supplying enough] energy. Poverty levels are going up. Sanitation is a problem in the developing world. We have the issue of pollution from the oil and diesel. There is need to go into other sources of energy, adapt other sources of energy that would be environmentally friendly,” he said.

Muchire says there are about 10 bio-gas centers in Kibera under construction and that an engineer is looking at how the gas can be piped into peoples’ homes.

Source – http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-11-07-voa17.cfm

The scourge of so-called “flying toilets” – where human waste is put into a plastic bag and tossed into the air, landing on roads or in gutters – has plagued the slums of Kenya’s capital Nairobi for decades. But an innovative project in the slum of Kibera has dramatically cut down on the problem by converting human waste into gas that can be used to fuel cookers and other devices.

Roseline Amondi cooks githeri at the community kitchen powered by gas from the community toilet in Kibera, Kenya

Roseline Amondi is cooking up a storm. Today’s menu for the tiny restaurant she runs is githeri, a traditional dish consisting of beans and maize.

Amondi cooks every day in this community kitchen. She will then take the food back to her kiosk to sell to her customers. She says the community stove saves her a lot of money that she would otherwise spend on charcoal or wood.

“Before the gas started working, I was using almost 100 or 200 [shillings] per day for cooking any meal in the house, but right now, it is only 10 bob [shillings] per meal,” she said. “It is very cheap. If I cook two different types of food, I may use only 30 shillings for the whole day. That is wonderful.”

The gas that Amondi uses comes from an unlikely source, the community toilet. This is a rare sight in Kibera, where up to 200 people can share a single latrine in neighborhoods that have no electricity or running water.

The TOSHA community toilets in Kibera slum

The toilet and kitchen are run by a coalition of five community groups calling themselves TOSHA (Total Sanitation and Hygiene Access). “Tosha” also means “enough” in the national language Ki’Swahili.

Some 600 people a day use the toilets for a small fee.

The human waste is transported via pipes into an underground tank, where it is converted into bio-gas.

The gas is then piped up to the community kitchen, where members can use the stove for pennies per pot.

Groups often rent out the facility’s top floor for meetings and functions. TOSHA earns some $400 each month renting out the facility, the community kitchen and use of the toilets.

Aidah Binale is a coordinator with Umande Trust, a development group that partnered with TOSHA to formulate the project.

She says it was difficult at first for community members to accept the gas.

“People will have the idea of, ‘Ah, no, I can’t cook from there, it is from [human] waste.’ Right now we are still trying to capacity build, we are trying to tell them [there is] nothing wrong,” she explained. “We get to have more visitors from different countries coming to visit us. We make sure that when they come to the office, we tell them, ‘Let’s go down there and have tea.’ So when the community comes and sees us drinking tea, they are thinking, ‘Ah, this is a foreigner taking tea. These people are taking tea, we can also cook.’”

Running water and sanitation facilities are virtually non-existent in slums like Kibera, where most people earn less than $1 a day. Human waste in plastic bags is often dumped on roads, alleys and gutters.

But locals say there has been a dramatic reduction in these so-called “flying toilets” since the bio-gas center was constructed two years ago.

Roseline Amondi is also secretary of TOSHA.

“At the time we were using flying toilets, there were so many diseases around us like cholera,” she noted. “Once an outbreak of cholera occurs, we are the sufferer. Many of us died, some got into the hospitals. But right now, for the last three months, there was an outbreak [of cholera] within Nairobi, but we were safe because of the bio-center.”

Project supporters say the TOSHA Bio-Gas Centre is a model for communities everywhere, especially those dealing with power shortages.

Paul Muchire, communication manager with Umande Trust.

“We have the problem of [supplying enough] energy. Poverty levels are going up. Sanitation is a problem in the developing world. We have the issue of pollution from the oil and diesel. There is need to go into other sources of energy, adapt other sources of energy that would be environmentally friendly,” he said.

Muchire says there are about 10 bio-gas centers in Kibera under construction and that an engineer is looking at how the gas can be piped into peoples’ homes.

Source – http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-11-07-voa17.cfm

Kibera är den största kåkstaden i Nairobi¹, och med i runda tal 1 miljon invånare (¼ av Nairobis befolkning) första anhalt för många av dem som flyttar till huvudstaden från landet. Men Kiberas betydelse för ekonomi och samhälle syns inte på Nairobikartorna, där området är en grå fläck. Liksom andra informella bosättningar, i Nairobi och annorstädes. För hur stor den informella ekonomin i de informella bosättningarna än är, vill ingen myndighet ge en ad hoc-gata kantad med plåtskjul utan bygglov det existensberättigande en gata och ett gatunamn på en karta ger.

Just i skrivande stund håller några Nairobibor på att förändra allt det. I projektet Map Kibera kartläggs under november hela Kibera i Open Street Map (OSM), för att skapa fria kartor till invånare, företag, hjälporganisationer etc.

Open Street Map har ambitionen att bygga en användarskapad världskarta (tänk Wikipedia för kartor), där all data är framtagen av privatpersoner som mäter ut koordinater, skriver in gatunamn och ritar ut fotbollsplaner eller simbassänger, och skänker sitt arbete till projektet. Till skillnad från Google Maps eller Microsofts Bing Maps finns det inget företag bakom, som kan välja att ta betalt för eller radera information i framtiden, eller hävda upphovsrätt till koordinaterna som legat till grund för kartan (något det också spekulerats i).

Enskilda personer som tillsammans mäter upp hela jorden i konkurrens med ett par av världens största IT-företag lät som en väl optimistisk tanke, men faktum är att i länder och städer som inte varit Googles topprioritet har OSM lyckats ruggigt bra. Jämför bara gatunätet i Kabul på OSM med Kabul på Google Maps. Och att kartorna är fria att användas kommersiellt eller icke-kommersiellt och utan villkor är ingen obetydlig sak i sammanhanget.

Samtidigt satsar Google stenhårt på att bygga ut karttäckningen i Afrika. Det nya årsgamla utvecklingskontoret i Nairobi (det enda, enligt företagets egen blogg, som inte har några produktionskrav utan bara kan syssla med konceptutveckling och liknande) har tagit sig an flera östafrikanska städer i samarbete med Nairobi universitet, i Sydafrika får man draghjälp av kändisar när t.ex. Thandiswa från Bongo Maffin visar sina favoritställen med egna lager på Googles kartor, och i Sydafrika satsar man nu också på att täcka in alla småstäder.

Afrikas kåkstäder håller på att hamna på kartan, bokstavligen. Och det är sannerligen ingen liten sak.

Länkar

• Map Kibera
• Map Kibera på Twitter
• Map Kiberas Googlegrupp, presentation av deltagarna
• Slum Dwellers International (SDI) om Nairobis kåkstäder (PDF)
• Cities Alliance
• UN-Habitat
• Google Maps i Sydafrika

¹ Kallas ofta Afrikas största kåkstad, men det är det nog tveksamt om någon har täckning för sådana påstående.

On Friday, I attended a talk with my sister at her firm Clifford Chance. The presentation was given by the organisation Five Talents. Listening to one of their case studies, delivered by a project leader from Sudan, was so interesting. It got me thinking about how this could be implemented more effectively in Kenya.

I saw several microfinancing projects in Kibera, Africa’s biggest slum.  For some reason, they weren’t working as well as the example of a bank set up by villagers in neighbouring Sudan. What occurred to me was something that Five Talents highlighted – the key to successful microfinancing is encouraging people to save.

Poorer peoples lives operate in a short-term format. They live day-to-day, trying to get by on what they have at that point in time. Understandably, they prioritise feeding their families and paying their rent.

In Kibera I saw an excellent project providing small business loans to HIV positive women. The women run stalls selling anything from clothes to charcoal. The problem with this particular structure of microfinancing, is that the women are only making enough to survive on. Therefore, when external factors, such as the post-election violence, strip people of their stock, homes, and money, they have no savings to fall back on.

To see the basics of how Five Talents run their microfinancing projects, click here. This is something I would definitely like to explore further. The idea of fighting poverty and creating jobs using a bottom up approach is ideal. Obviously, such programmes cause/experience corruption, but good models of microfinancing, such as Five Talents should be encouraged.

I’m here! And so-fari so goody!

I arrived in Nairobi late last night feeling extremely dazed and disorientated. I quite enjoyed the flight as I got a birdseye view of the Sahara and the Sudan and BA also gave me free socks which made my feet very comfy indeed. I’m so used to flying Ryanair now that this seemed like a real treat.

Fortunately everything went smoothly at the airport and none of my concerns like baggage going missing or my driver not being there came to fruition, and I managed to clear immigration in a matter of minutes. On the drive to Helen’s apartment I obviously couldn’t see a whole lot as it was dark, but we did cut through the centre of Nairobi so I got to see what the downtown area looks like.

Helen’s sister greeted me at the apartment and showed me around.  After she left, I rather mournfully ate the sandwiches I had bought at Manchester Airport yesterday morning, unpacked, and unsuccessfully tried to connect my laptop to the internet. It’s very cosy here and three stories up which makes me feel quite safe. Nevertheless, the strange new noises kept me awake for a while last night until I managed to establish that none of them were coming from inside the apartment.

Despite feeling lonely and bit homesick, I slept like an absolute log last night and awoke this morning to find that Helen’s husband Alex had arrived back from Johannesburg. He was extremely friendly and laid back and sorted me out a taxi to take me the Giraffe Centre and the Karen Blixen Museum this afternoon. He also helped me connect to the internet and warned me that the boys living upstairs were extremely noisy (although I had already discovered this during the night).

The taxi drive did not help me to feel any less overwhelmed about being in Africa. The first and most obvious thing I noticed was that people here seem to be less keen on sitting indoors and even if they aren’t doing much, they just seem to hang out on the street. There are people everywhere and colourful stalls and outdoor shops all over the place as well. Animals graze freely on the sides of the road; some of them, I must add, looking very frail and bony.

Another thing I could not help but notice are the masses of barbed wire and ten feet plus walls that surround many of the properties here. The apartment complex I’m staying in is gated and has a security guard, but it has no barbed wire on the walls; then again it is not particularly showy and glamourous. I must say that I am surprised how conspiculously the rich people do display their wealth here. In the upmarket suburbs I travelled through today some of the houses were extremely extravagant, even by British standards, and probably need all the barbed wire and security and guard dogs they can get.

I have yet to see much of life at the other end of the spectrum, although you sense poverty lingering here. I did catch a glimpse of the Kibera slum today out of the back window as we sped away in the opposite direction though…I’m sure there will be more to come on this subject later. We did have a few hairy moments on the road today as well, where no rules seem to apply and matatus jump all over the place, leaving you with the sense that a collision may well be imminent. Matatus are Nissan minibuses and the main form of public transport here. They are painted with crazy designs and often have music pumping out of them. To be honest, they scare the living daylights out of me, but as I will be here for quite some time, I really need to learn to use them. Im sure there will be more to come on this subject as well…

My taxi driver wasn’t the most talkative in the world and there were no seatbelts in the back of the taxi but he waited for me everwhere I went which was pretty good. First I went to the Karen Blixen Museum which I quite wanted to see, although I wasn’t that fussed about. According to Lonely Planet it was only 200 KSH (about £2) so I thought I might as well go, but when I got there I found it was 800 KSH! For this, a tour of the house was included and there was a huge Kenyan wedding going on in the grounds which created a lovely atmosphere, but overall it was still a bit of a rip-off as there was not that much to see. My tour guide was a very friendly guy, as was the house security guard who took a picture of me in front of the house and also tried to find a chameleon in the garden for me to look at.

The Giraffe Centre was an absolutely charming place where, if you were prepared to be slobbered on, you will have an amazing time. This too cost more than Lonely Planet stated (I’ll be throwing it in a dustbin sometime soon) at 750 KSH, but it was well worth the money. Giraffes are without a doubt one of the world’s funniest creatures and there were many at the centre ranging from very tiny babies to huge adults. Not all of them came over to be fed, but even just the sight of them swaying through the trees around Giraffe Manor (easily one of the world’s best located hotels) was magical in itself.

Feeding the giraffes was a brilliant experience. They reach out their tongues and curl them around the bits of food you hold out to them, although some of them are more adept at this than others and the less skilled ones don’t seem to be able to do it without getting your whole hand in their mouth first, which is certainly an interesting feeling. The guy that supervised the feeding showed me some tricks to get good photo poses and took pictures of me hugging and kissing the giraffes. He was a very happy guy (probably because he had a really great job) and chatted to me about what I was doing in Nairobi and the giraffes which was nice. There was also a warthog (another hilarious animal) mooching about and picking up the food that fell out of the giraffes mouths, which it could only do by crawling around on its elbows. As soon as one of the rangers went close to it however, it pelted off rather comically into the forest.

So on the way back, we passed the shopping centre that Helen’s sister told me about, and it is literally 200 metres down the road. Still, I have yet to gather the courage to venture out! My couscous and loaf and bread is not going to keep me going for much longer however, so I am going to force myself to get up and go tomorrow morning. I feel very self-conscious at the moment but need to get over it very quickly and learn how to do things for myself! There were a lot of men hanging round the gate of the apartment complex earlier and one of them stopped my taxi driver and clearly said something to him about me in Swahili, but I obviously have no idea what it was. They were still there when we got back and I didn’t really want to have to walk past them alone, which was why I didn’t go to the shopping centre…how very cowardly of me!

Anyway, I’ve been back at the apartment ever since and there is plenty for me to do here, especially now I have internet connection. I think I may be suffering a little bit from jetlag as I had to have a nap before and keep getting that overwhelming feeling of needing to drop off…actually nothing unusual there! It has been very noisy this evening, with music playing and people shouting and talking and singing happy birthday. I can also hear the crickets and some interesting bird noises that I’m not used to, so I will have to keep an eye out of the window for things fluttering around in the trees.

So finally, the weather has been good so far, and the temparature is around 19-22 degrees which is really just perfect. There has been the odd smattering of rain but it has only lasted for a couple of minutes each time and hopefully it will continue that way.

I’m off now to have couscous and tear up my Lonely Planet guide, but hopefully I’ll get another chance to write again soon!

Bismillah.  I was born in Nairobi, hence the interest when a friend told me about his people there, the Nubians who live in the Kibera district of the Kenyan capital.

He says, “This is the link to our website Nubians in Kenya. In this page are pictures of my father (Councillor Ali Ramathan el-Ali) in the 50’s.”

By Chris Northey, Emergencies Coordinator, CARE Australia

The women of Kibera are powerful. I learnt this yesterday.

Kibera in Nairobi is one of the largest informal urban settlements in Africa. Home to close to a million people crammed together in five square kilometres of land, it is a potential urban nightmare of the future, with no running water, sewerage or other services that we in Australia take for granted. The million people who call Kibera home came there seeking a better life. For many, this possibility continues to be remote.

Kibera is where CARE works in partnership with 15 community groups; trying to make the lives of HIV positive people better; helping households where there are only children and; supporting the grandmothers who have been given the task of raising grandchildren. This year the people of Kibera have been hit with a double blow, protracted drought and rising food prices have meant many Kenyans are not able to afford the most basic meals. Research by CARE in March found that people are increasingly skipping meals and selling valuable household assets in the face of food shortages.

The informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya

In response to this, CARE began distributing food vouchers to people in Kibera who were the most vulnerable to the food shortage including malnourished orphans, child only households, pregnant women, people with HIV and the elderly. Yesterday I visited Kibera to hear more from those with whom CARE works.

On the way we pass a shop called, ‘Baraka Traders’, I ask my colleague what ‘Baraka’ means. ‘Blessing’, he says with a wry smile. I see row after row of precariously constructed houses that look very susceptible to rain and other elements and have open sewers running between them. Legend has it that the reason the houses are so susceptible to collapse is because they are built on layers of rubbish compacted over the years and thus lack a solid foundation. I smell dust and wood-smoke and diesel, smells I always associate with Africa. I hear Congolese rumba music, its infectious twirling rhythms instantly recognisable, and see goats and skinny yellow dogs. And I see people, dozens of people walking along the road, in buses, on bicycles, repairing cars, getting haircuts, living their lives.

Distribution of the food vouchers to more than 1,200 families in Kibera.

When I arrived at the CARE office I met three powerful and inspiring women; Veronica, Grace and Susan. I’d like to share with you the stories of their community in Kibera.

‘The vouchers really helped people, I visit people who were bed-ridden, with the vouchers they were able to buy food to take with their ARV (Anti Retroviral Drugs: medication for the treatment of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS), now they are out of bed and moving around.’

‘With the vouchers, as well as food, we bought flour in bulk and made and sold chapattis and mandazis (doughnuts) on the street, we are starting to bring in a small profit that helps our families.’

‘The vouchers made me feel my dignity as a human being , imagine me being able to walk into a supermarket, a place where I had never gone before, and choosing things that I wanted for my family from the shelves; flour, oil, sugar and tea.’

Dignity and choice, these were words I heard several times on that short visit.

A mural seen throughout Kibera, Kenya.

I asked them what went wrong with the project, what didn’t they like. Quite often we’re only told the good news on these visits so I was a little surprised when Veronica said, ‘It was not enough, there were many more people who wanted help, I found it very difficult to explain to people.’

She continued saying, ‘We are grateful but you need to do more, don’t think of this as just giving food, it is more than that, you are giving people a chance, an opportunity to better their lives.’ I then asked, rather sheepishly, if there was anything else they needed and was told; ‘People should have been able to purchase soap as well with the vouchers.’

CARE is increasingly using vouchers for distributing essential food and other items to people affected by crisis or disaster. It can be a powerful tool, especially in urban areas where it is a lack of access not availability that is hindering people’s ability to source food. Using vouchers means that women like Veronica and Grace and Susan can have choice in the decisions they make on behalf of their children and grandchildren. Decisions that we take for granted in our day to day lives of 24 hour trading and an over-abundance of resources and choice. As I was leaving Kibera, Veronica told me she was giving me a job to do, ‘I want to thank CARE, you tell Australians how their money has helped us improve our lives, but you need to find resources for more projects like this,’ she paused, ‘and please do not forget the soap next time.’

I told you Kibera women are powerful.

I love school. I love college. I love reading. I love having professors who expose me to different ideas, direct me towards different articles I would have never thought to read myself. The concept is so simple, yet it can be so hard to do on your own. Compared to a lot of my friends, I’ve loved the classes I’ve taken and actually enjoy a lot of my work. I don’t mind the work at all.

As of late, however, I’ve struggled with finding the motivation to start my work, never mind complete it. A large part of this is due to the various changes I’ve been struggling with since I’ve returned from Kenya. In Kenya, my learning was very hands-on and experiential. Our lessons consisted of conversations with professionals from the field, of visiting NGOs, of doing field work for our research projects and simply living what we were learning. I had never felt so alive, so constantly fascinated by everything I encountered.

Being back in the regular college environment, after having experienced the “real world”, or whatever you would call my time in Kibera, it’s been difficult going back. I’ve come to realize that being a college student is 80% being patient. The general monotony of my college experience is broken up by great organizations, cool programs through the IGL, and venturing into the local communities here. But what they say about the college bubble is true, and it exists. We’re still here stuck for at least a few years as students, unable to really venture out when we so desire (unless we take time off!).

At the risk of sounding dramatic, thus depressed me for a bit. I hate being in a state of such inaction, unable to do the work I so want to do, unable to see the women I had worked with and spent time with because I had to return to the States and be a student once again. It all feels somewhat unfair and unnecessary.

So why have I not dropped out of college yet? Here’s a secret! When I was actually in the field in the slums of Kibera, I was hit day after day by the realization of how little I actually know and understand. It was incredibly humbling and sometimes downright humiliating; some days I would return home only to feel foolish and completely discouraged. I didn’t understand a lot about the technical aspects of microfinance, nor did I completely understand how to properly conduct interviews, nor did I know how to correctly cook chapati or light a jiko (stove) using old newspapers and matches. This all reminded me of how much I don’t know, and how much more I still have to learn.

And so, I regard my current academic studies as leading me towards something bigger. As Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” More than ever I feel aware that I’m working towards preparing myself for what I want to do in the future. When I feel discouraged, I think of the HIV positive women I got to know in Kibera and all the hopes they had for me and what I could eventually do with them. I think of the people of SHOFCO, an NGO I became close to during my time in Kenya. I might not be learning some more practical aspects, such as how to hand wash my clothes or go without running water and electricity but I am learning the things that I need guidance over, and I’m learning them well.

I see this especially in EPIIC. One of my fellow classmates calculated, after our first test two weeks ago, that we had been assigned 2080 pages to read thus far (as of this writing, I’m sure a few hundred more can be safely added to that). It’s hard to not get frustrated over this, especially when it interferes with virtually every other aspect of your life including showering, eating, and sleeping. The other day, however, we had a professor from Fletcher come speak to us about Afghanistan, and found that we already knew everything he was presenting to us and understood it well.

It was just one of those moments where, when I was starting to feel most frustrated, I was finally able to see where my hard work is heading and how it’s paying off

P.S. For my most recent inquisitive Googler- I believe Tufts took 60-some transfers this year, as opposed to 13 last year!

In Kibera, the large informal settlement in Nairobi, the residents are paraded like animals on safari for foreign tourists:

“The Dutch tourists came well prepared for the walking safari: strong shoes and sunscreen, backpacks and bottled water. Ahead lay an afternoon visiting one of Kenya’s most recognisable sights – but one that rarely features in tourist brochures. “It might seem a bit strange to come here,” said Eric Schlangen, as the guide led him towards the sea of tin-roofed shacks that constitute Kibera, often described as one of the world’s largest slums. “But I wanted to see how people live in this country, not just the animals.” Slum tourism is taking off in Kenya. Several local organisations have started selling guided trips through Kibera, a short drive from the luxury hotels that serve most foreign visitors in Nairobi. For about £20, tourists are promised a glimpse into the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people crammed into tiny rooms along dirt paths littered with excrement-filled plastic bags known as “flying toilets”, as one tour agency explains on its website.”

The Guardian.

With my first EPIIC test coming up on Thursday (along with an EPIIC retreat all of next weekend in NH), meetings for various classes and commitments I’ve made, I already know that this is without a doubt going to be my most stressful week thus far… and it’s only Monday!

A few short highlights from the past few days:

• Seeing Raila Odinga, the prime minister of Kenya, speak at Harvard! It was interesting to hear the questions people had, and to see how he changes himself in different cultural contexts and settings. The last time I watched him speak (on TV, my homestay mom didn’t let me go because she was worried about my safety!), I was living in Kibera. Raila Odinga speaking to people in the slums (fiery and intense) is very different from Raila Odinga speaking at Harvard (much more subdued and calm). Plus, hearing kiswahili being spoken around me definitely simultaneously provoked a bit of heartache and delight at the same time. Nakosa Kenya sana!
• My friend Amalia (who goes to Tufts and who I met in Kenya!) and I had dinner in Harvard Square afterward and WOW! I am definitely a fan of the place. I definitely prefer Davis Square, which is less commercial, with less tourists and more of a feeling of community, but it’s nice to have Harvard Square within reach when you need a change of scenery.
• CollegeFest! CollegeFest is this fun two-day event with music, performances, and of course- lots of free stuff. There were tons of booths giving out things like free chicken wings, candy, pens, juices and teas, and energy drinks; they certainly understand their audience well! We ate and drank a lot, got free salon-style haircuts, and took some silly pictures:

All in all a great few days. I had to stay up until 3:30 AM working last night because I spent most of the day at CollegeFest and will be up late again tonight, but it was definitely worth it . Now to run off and study- Tisch really is my second home!