Given the change of plan midway through our trip I was a
little disappointed that the Project Albert Team would not have the opportunity
to experience the motivating essence of its objectives.
At almost the eleventh
hour, a God given opportunity arose in that I could escort our team,
hosted by the UN Environmentalist Chief Paul Chebera, through the Kibera
slum district of Nairobi. Bridging The Gap had also identified the need
for a bridge to be constructed to allow the residents of this forsaken
place to pass over an open sewer, which swells to impassable depths when
the rain falls. Kibera wears the dubious tag of constituting the largest
single concentration of slums in the African continent.
Not many of us UK residents
have any idea of how they live in the slums. To live in an area like
Kibera subjects one to a litany of disadvantages all describable in the
darkest of superlatives; exposure to the worst in terms of socialisation,
sanitation, Kibera is perhaps the only place on earth saddled with the
infamy of flying toilets, a term derived from the practice of people
collecting their excrement, sealing it in polythene bags and virtually
hurling it anywhere. Hand in hand comes high crime, incredible grime
and overall denial.
The slum environment plays a relentless and compassionless
role in dehumanising its resident population and undermining their
very humanity. One view is that the indifferent governmental disposition
to the poor and neglected of Nairobi, or indeed wider Kenyan poverty
issues, is little short of a callous and self-indulgent neglect, which
thrives upon corruption. The truth is that Kibera is a shining example
of the haves and have nots. This sprawling, disease scarred slum, whose
inhabitants amount to a staggering 1.2 million people is but a stones
throw away from the affluent and leafy Karen district. For me, it amounts
to an astonishing spectacle that anyone would acknowledge as being a
seriously warped sense of both opportunity and resource distribution.
Never to be overwhelmed or distracted, Project Albert would identify
a pocket here somewhere, and would make a difference.
Pastor Naaman proudly showed us around his area. As we progressed
through the slum his status, respect and standing within
his community were recognised by both young and old and our
presence with him gave us unwarranted credibility. This wonderful
man’s motivating influence plays a major role in
the functioning of a society in both a practical and spiritual way.
We saw an agricultural site growing vegetables next to a
byre housing at least half a dozen milk producing cows. There
was a nearby sty, which was home to in excess of 30 pigs.
We saw his Church and eventually his school.
Academic achievement here is way beyond what one would expect.
I have 2 ten year old lads whose curricular progress is behind their
Kiberan counterparts. There is nothing more important to this community
than the education of the young, as a consequence even the tots will
continue at school way beyond 4 or 5pm. The children have no knowledge
of Game Boys, X-Boxes or Playstations and they have taken on the feeling
of the whole community in that they acknowledge that education is the
only chance they have to escape the clutches of Kibera. The school
is immediately adjacent to the site for a new bridge.
As Paul worked
out the logistics of it’s construction I turned my attention to
the Headmaster and questioned him more about his school. I engaged him
about school hours and he rapidly responded telling me that children
only attend school from 7.30am to 5pm. Paul Chebera abruptly intervened,
emphatically stating: “Edward, how can you expect this fine Headmaster
to say anything else but this? because this is Kenyan Law! His interests
lie in the education of his pupils, and it is right!” Paul went
on to explain that the children would continue with schoolwork way into
the night. He was here only 2 days ago and children were reading books
by a combination of both moonlight and oil fired lamps. Immediately
Project Albert became committed to funding Solar powered lighting for
this school; as this report is being written a lighting system is being
devised by Roger Mugridge and will eventually be fitted to Naaman’s
school. |
