Kibera

Today I went to the Kibera WEEP center. Normally we don't walk around the slum but today we went on home visits so we walked all around Kibera. Kibera is an interesting place, it looks like a shanty town. The shacks are made of mud with metal sheeting for roofs. Trash and human waste run through the ditches, combined with water it makes a murky sludge. The roads are hardened red clay, you have to look alive to avoid the waste. Kibera started as a military encampment, after World War I Nubian soldiers were given plots of land in that area. The settlement has grown into one of the largest slums in the world. It is estimated that 1.5 million people live in Kibera, although the area is not very large. None of the homes have running water or ventilated cooking stoves, it is not very sanitary. The vast majority of the people who live in Kibera are extremely poor, most live on less than $1 a day. Although the bulk of the people are very poor, some professionals do live in Kibera. The woman who runs the Kibera WEEP center, for example, lives in Kibera and she is a nurse. Another woman who works in the HEART project office lives in Kibera. The living conditions seem extreme to westerners, but for many they are just a way of life.
I also got an opportunity to speak to a WEEP lady one on one. I went to Rhoda's home to do a family evaluation. Her home was clean and beautiful, it was a single room divided by a curtain. The room was probably twelve by eight feet, and five people live there! Rhoda's home is spacious in comparison to most houses in Kibera, the other WEEP women who accompanied us kept commenting on how large it was. Rhoda also has access to a more private choo, the landlord built a choo for all the houses on the block. Choos are latrines, most people in Kibera use public choos. You have to pay three to five shillings (around six cents) to use the choo. Most people are so poor that they will only use the choo once a day, the rest of the time they will go to the bathroom in a bucket.
I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Rhoda and her family. She has three beautiful daughters, Rhoda supports them entirely on her own. Her husband abandoned her after he found out her status. Rhoda's daughter are all HIV negative, generally healthy, and in school. Overall the visit was very uplifting, it was wonderful to hear how far Rhoda has come and that her children have the opportunity to go to school. Rhoda did mention, almost nonchalantly, that her middle daughter was raped in 2007. Curity, 9 at the time, was attacked on her way to school. She was found beaten and raped. Curity was lucky, Rhoda made sure she went to the hospital right away and also insisted that she get counseling. Curity seemed like a happy and healthy young girl, I hope that is the case.
Rape is not uncommon in Kenya, and it is often family members who rape young girls. A principal at an orphanage we went to mentioned that she expected that most of the girls at the orphanage had been raped at one time or another.
Tomorrow is an office day, we are working around the HEART compound but we head upcountry on Thursday. I'll post more accounts of my adventures.
Best,
Margaret