Korogocho Slum is about 10 km away from Nairobi town. Korogocho is one of the largest slums in Nairobi. Around 200,000 people live there. Mr. Takahashi, who owns an NPO
called Little Bee International, guided me in Korogocho. LBI runs a school in Korogocho and has some self-reliance support projects in the slum. There was a clear entrance of the slum,
and two friends of Mr. Takahashi came to pick us up to protect us just in case. Especially Japanese stand out in slum. I refrained from taking pictures.
Buildings in slum are poorly built with galvanized iron plates, stones, and mad. This is school, but it cannot be distinguished so from outside. I visited here on January 1st, so the school was close.
There are seven villages in Korogocho slum. Once entered a village, paths are narrow and it is like a maze.
Life in slum is desperately poor. There is almost no chance of employment. Many people have no other choice but to sell themselves to sustain their lives, and consequently there are many
HIV-infected people. Ideally, they should start business on their own, but it is not easy. Here, LBI provides support. LBI supports especially women to be financially independent. Women learn
sewing and tailoring, and obtain skills. They make bags and sell and earn money by themselves. Today, there is a Kenyan leader of this project, whose name is Florence. She gathers women in the
slum and organizes the project by herself. She finds places for selling bags by herself too. Mr. Takahashi just helps them a bit today bringing some bags to Japan to sell. The bags are made of
beautiful cloth called Kanga. Let me know or Mr. Takahashi if there is anyone interested in!
There are about 400 students in the school Mr. Takahashi started. Recently they purchased a new classroom, in the picture above.
This is Nairobi River. Kenya dose not have waste managing system. Therefore people dump to rivers or garbage mountains. Unless people individually hire waste collecting agent, they have to get rid of waste by themselves. Not all waste collecting agents have refuse incinerator. Some of them just go to river or garbage mountain on behalf of their clients. So, this Nairobi River is full of trash. There is a mountain in the picture below right next to a tree on the left side. That mountain is made of garbage. Politics in Kenya is often said to be corrupted, and most of Kenyans say politicians are self-centered and care about only themselves. Slums are abandoned like this by the government, but it is not a situation that can be abandoned, or it is not excusable situation to abandon.
Although, people in Korogocho slum are very tough.
It is probably sanitary fine to cook chapati here, here is their kitchen for chapati. Children play in a small space of narrow street. There are some people who lost their smile because of
hardships in slum life, but they know how to live, much more than people in so called developed countries. It was just a part of a slum I saw, but I met people who are rich in spirit here.
Chapati I ate in this Korogocho slum was the best Kenyan food I had in Kenya.
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