Alex Haynie, nicknamed “Aliki” by some of his new Strathmore friends, is an associate at Strathmore University Foundation now in Kenya until December on a three-month exchange assignment to further the collaboration of SUF with Strathmore University.  A 2008 graduate of Princeton University from Pennsylvania, Alex is interning with three of Strathmore’s departments: athletics, community outreach, and alumni development. He is keeping a journal of his experiences and impressions.

 

 

On Tuesday, November 4th, I saw extreme poverty.  I spent almost four hours in Kibera, which is Africa’s

largest slum.  Over one million people live inside two and a half square kilometers, and many of the people are unemployed and living with AIDS.

 

I’m ashamed of myself for any complaints I’ve ever made about having it tough or any feelings of self-pitying I’ve indulged in, and I’m embarrassed about my earlier journal entries in Africa when I mentioned some of the challenges that I’ve faced here in Kenya.  The slight inconveniences I’ve spoken about are bountiful blessings compared to the adversity that the people of Kibera face.

 

Last week I set out on a mission to check out a few high schools in the slum, and I drove through the shanty town with the Strathmore Community Outreach Program (COP) director, Fenuel Kalulu, and with Jose Maria Mara, an intern at Strathmore from Spain who works with me in the University’s development office.  Strathmore has partnered with a few high schools in Kibera with the intent to support these schools both by having Strathmore students visit them and spend time with the high-schoolers, and by assisting the schools financially.

 

Fenuel, Jose Maria and I left Strathmore at 10:30am, and within ten minutes, we were thumping our way up

and down the mini hills that make up Kibera’s dirt roads.  Bumping over trash and through medium sized streams of filthy water, we made our way deeper into the slum, and I wasn’t so sure our taxi would make it out.

 

Trash littered much of the ground, and small tin shelters that made up the residents’ homes and stores lined the pseudo-road.  We saw only two other cars inside the slum during our four hour trip.  Despite the fact that tons of people sat along the road and seemed not to be working or doing much of anything but living in poverty, they waved and smiled.  The children especially beamed when they saw us, and they let out big happy shouts of “Wazungu!” when they saw Jose Maria and me (Wazungu means “white people” in Swahili). 

 

Our first stop was at Soweto Baptist High School.  The school started as a community initiative of the local Baptist church, and 270 students attend classes there, with seven teachers.  Though public schools in Kenya are supposed to be free, the schools don’t receive sufficient funding, so they are forced to charge school fees in order to pay for simple but necessary items such as books and teachers.  Many kids cannot

pay these fees (which total for one year around 10,000 Kenyan shillings (ksh), which is equivalent to ~145 United States Dollars), as many kids in Kibera are orphans or living with single parents, and many adults in Kibera are unemployed.  When we asked the school principal what the school needed most, he answered that they wished they had scholarship funds so that more local kids could attend, they needed help teaching, they needed desks, lab equipment, and physical labor to help rebuild some of the school’s dilapidated structures.  The principal reported to us that Soweto Baptist High School helps Kibera because it offers local youth an education at a much cheaper price than the government schools. 

 

After interviewing a few students, a teacher, and the principal at Soweto Baptist High School, we made our

way a short distance to St. Gabriel’s High School.  There we found nicer buildings with more space, but learned that the school faces many of the same difficulties that Soweto faces: lack of funds, lack of books, and lack of teachers.  We met a former student at the school named Gabriel, who now teaches there when he is on college break.  It was inspiring and at the same time distressing to hear Gabriel’s story; Gabriel volunteers at the school simply because his heart is in the community, and he wants the students there to have the best opportunity possible.  Gabriel told us, “If you don’t go to school, it’s like the end of the world, the end of me.  So I might as well start doing other things, like drugs, or something else.”  Gabriel’s service to his community in his teaching and acting as a role model are crucial in helping the youth of Kibera, and with some help from others outside the slum, it’s people like Gabriel that can have a big impact to change the climate of Kibera.

 

After St. Gabriel’s High School, we stopped at an HIV clinic nearby that wasn’t more than a bunch of pieces

of scrap metal leaned onto a few sticks in the ground.  The clinic serves as a school for 70 children of HIV parents during the day, and as a support group for 72 adults on the weekends.  All 72 adults are HIV positive, 21 of the children are, and the husband and wife running the clinic are HIV positive as well.  The students attend this specific clinic because other people in Kibera alienate themselves from children of HIV parents, and the nasty stigma that others place on the children prohibits them from attending other schools.  When we entered the tiny room where the 70 children were preparing to get a lunch of ugali, all the kids rushed over to us with big smiles, wanting to shake our hands and saying in loud voices the few English words they knew: “How are YOU?! How are YOU?! How are YOU?!”  We spent some time with the children and then spoke with the husband and wife running the clinic, as we gathered details about what they envisioned for the clinic and what they needed.  After the clinic, we drove around the slum a little while longer and then headed back to Strathmore.

 

After visiting a place like Kibera, one can’t help but be energized to try to help the people living in such miserable conditions.  It’s difficult to know where to start.  Several kids here at Strathmore warn me about corruption that plagues Kenya at all levels, whether it’s the government or even just small individual organizations such as the matatus (the city buses).  Strathmore officials have investigated the high schools in Kibera and followed up on those leading the schools and clinics to ensure that the University pours its resources into the right efforts.  The images of the kids and homes set next to trash will be burned into my mind forever though, and I can’t help but believe that we can do something more to help the kids who are born into such rough situations. 

 

Fortunately, many Kenyans are taking the initiative on so many of the tough issues facing the country.  Strathmore’s proactive role in community outreach ingrains the spirit of service into students, and other Kenyans understand the need for specifically Kenyan solutions as well. 

 

For now, it’s heartbreaking to see people in such conditions, where “flying toilets” (excrement voided into plastic bags and cast into the alleys from shanties without proper toilets) and refuse cover the landscape.  I’ll pray for the people we’ve met, hope that intelligent efforts will bear fruit in the near future, and work as best I can to help the Kenyans already leading the charge to continue in their good work. 

 

[Editor's Note: The images from Kibera are powerful, dramatic, indeed disturbing. Seeing the scale of Kibera’s challenges helps a viewer understand its vast needs and appreciate the important work for health and education undertaken by so many coming to Kibera’s aid. Strathmore’s Community Outreach Program, in which all undergraduates are required to participate, sends Strathmore students to intern in clinics, schools, and other agencies in Kibera and other distressed areas. Strathmore also recruits students from Kibera. Last year Strathmore’s top ranking graduate came from Kibera. To view on YouTube a video called “Kibera Documentary”, one on many YouTube presentations about Kibera, click here.]