Kibera and more

After the end of training, I got to spend a couple of days shadowing Jackie and seeing a whole different volunteering experience. Jackie is currently volunteering in Nairobi at the Plastics Recycling SACCO and helping them at a variety of sites where they have projects.

On Thursday, we went to Kibera. Due to some transportation issues, I made Jackie and the recycling people wait for me for about 45 minutes. They were incredibly patient, and I am very grateful that they waited. We went over to Kibera, which is a slum community in Nairobi. I believe that it is the 2nd biggest slum in sub-Saharan Africa. I wish I had pictures of everything that we saw, but I think you are used to using your imaginations by now (if you want to see some pictures, you should send me an email and I might be able to help you out).

The biggest issue in the area is probably sanitation. The houses are very closely packed and many people live in each room. Still, there have been some huge strides made to improve sanitation. There have been some latrines installed, and I think awareness campaigns are going on, but that is still the tip of the iceberg. The border of the area is a river. All the waste flows downhill into that river. Which then feeds into the Nairobi River. There's still a lot of work to be done.

The group we were visiting was called the Kibera Youth Self-Help Forum and they also had a business called Beautifier's Cleaning Company. We did some needs assessment work with them and saw some of the work of the company, then we traveled through the slum to see the work they have and just to really appreciate the conditions for the people who live there. I think the most shocking thing was seeing all of the antennae. In spite of everyone's assumptions about the poverty of slums, many of the houses had an antenna to get better reception on their TV. Their TVs were probably powered by stolen electricity. It's all a very interesting situation.

The first place we stopped was one of the group's waste collection sites. There is a huge amount of waste in the area, so groups have started collecting the waste and sorting it. The largest portion is organic waste, so they have started composting projects and are selling the soil as well as setting up urban farms. I may also try to work with them a bit in the future to set up a tree nursery. (I love projects!) Then, they have a lot of scrap metal that they clean and then sell to support their other ventures. They also collect plastics and sort and sell those too, although those can be harder to market. Still, a lot of waste is just burned. I saw a sticker that said something to the effect of "Trash is not waste until it is wasted." I really liked that.

We also got to visit their after school program for children around the slum. As with everything done in a slum, space is a huge constraint. It is the first thing on everyone's mind, but it is really hard to find good solutions, especially with such a short time to work on implementation. All around the school and other places in the slum, people had stenciled the words "Keep Peace". It was really cool to see all of that. Kibera was something of a "smoldering volcano" (that expression comes from my cousin Ray) during the post-election violence. Although crime is not as high as one might expect, there is always fear of ethnic tensions surfacing again. Let's hope that people take those stenciled messages to heart.

On Friday, we had a much less action packed day. We went to the plastics center and I got to see a bit more of the facilities. Then, we went out and visited a much smaller waste recycling center. They are still getting started, and it seems like Jackie will be working with them a bit more on some engineering issues that they are facing. After seeing all of this, I have a new appreciation for plastics recycling and cretaive solutions to really hard problems. Nairobi has lots of litter all over the city, so these are really important issues to address.