Goals
SUSTAINABILITY
To date we have supported programs that involve the education of slum children. This includes a food program, health issues, after school programs, extra-curricular outings and social issues. We have assisted other programs in Mathare, such as Roots, a program aimed at street children. We have worked with Mathare Stitches, a sewing group for single mothers. Every year we work in the slum, other needs present them selves.
Currently we are assisting the community to renovate the only communal building in the slum. We are also planning to build a well at the school, MCEDO. This would solve all their problems with obtaining water.
Water is a problem for everyone living in Mathare. Jeegos (large yellow water carriers) are lugged in by individuals daily.There is no clean running water in the slum. With a well on the school grounds, the community would also have easy access to water. The school could charge a small fee, and create a little income, to maintain the well. Everyone would benefit.
Sustainability in Africa generally means something that has been put in place is maintained over time. PCA created structures, programs and opportunities for this community 24 years ago that remain in place and active today. We have created a stable resource for the children of Mathare. The poverty they exist in, remains, but the opportunities for the future have grown.
Programs we support
MCEDO - Mathare Community Education and Development Organization is a community based organization operating in the heart of Mathare slum. The school currently has a population of 450 children aged between 6 and 18 years. Its daily operations are run by a team of 17 staff (15 teachers, 2 non-teaching).
Mwelu Foundation - is a registered Belgian Trust founded in 2007. We work with a group of approximately 80 ambitious, positive and talented young people to help them realize their potential through photography, film production and the building of life skills. All participants live in the slum.
CME Trust - CMETrust is a partnership of dedicated and passionate individuals in Mathare and in Canada who believe in the power of educated individuals to change their lives, their families, their community, and the world. The goal is to create a critical mass of these individuals, so that their impact will be truly transformative. They support bright, dedicated young people throughout their educational journeys, and we actively foster the spirit of giving back to the community through a Secondary School scholarship program for Mathare children.
Mathare Roots Youth Group - is a community-based organization established in 2006 by a group of young men and women of the Mathare slums. By helping street youth with food and counselling Mathare Roots is trying to bring “good fruits” from the slum, which would paint a better picture of their community “from Roots to Fruits!” They pride themselves on vast experience in community development acquired from long-term involvement in their own community.
Paamoja - An after school teen program designed to change the day to day negative lifestyle of the young people who live within the sprawling slums of Mathare Valley and its neighbourhoods, by creating effective awareness, via our activities, about sexuality, leadership and life skills, and how they are interrelated; thus improving the living and knowledge standards of Mathare residents. In addition, CME Trust Scholarships students give back to this community by volunteering their time to train as animators for Paamoja.
HEALTHCARE
In 2102 PCA pioneered the first free medical clinic in the South end of the Mathare slum. The clinic first opened to serve first the needs of new mothers and their newborn babies. The clinic serves approximately 900 patients a month. This clinic has become a successful component of Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital Outreach Programme.
One of our goals is to work with Gertrude’s to open a second clinic to serve the community who live in the north end of Mathare Slum.
Clean water is a problem in the slum and at school. Washing hands before lunch is a priority for the children, and they are constantly a reminded to wash. Bringing water in to the slum is expensive and labour intensive. We plan to build a well on the school grounds, for security reasons, and to offer the community the opportunity to draw their water from the school rather than the long distances they must walk to refill their large plastic water holders.
Nutrition
Children in the slum do not attend school if the schools does not offer them food. Otherwise they must fend for themselves begging in the streets of the city.
We provide a hot lunch and an afternoon snack for all 450 children attending MCEDO. As a result of the food program attendance at MCEDO is close to 100%. The kitchen we support at the school had to meet the World Food Organization’s standards in order for them to receive maize from this group.
PCA provides “First Food,” a fortified oatmeal, used in refugee camp to fight malnutrition. It was determined by Doctors from Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital that many children in Mathare are malnourished. This oatmeal is difficult to obtain, however whenever we can find it or the closest oatmeal to it, we purchase as much as we can and distribute it to as many children throughout the slum as possible.
Life in the Slum
There are no western styled kitchens. At best, food is prepared on charcoal burners (called gekos) outside, next to pathways divided by raw sewage and garbage.
Diseased livestock goats and chickens also live here. The animals typically feed off the waste.
Starvation is a daily occurance. Unemployment at 60% for men. Most women do not work. If there is no work, children will go without food.
People climb the hydro poles to extract the oil from transformers to use in cooking.
As there is no existing infrastructure for waste removal-human waste and garbage is everywhere.
Children do not use facilities. They use the streets to relieve themselves.
There is no sanitation system. This means there is a high amount of communicable diseases amongst children.
The few clinics available are privatized, and astronomically unaffordable for the people of Mathare.
Without a proper healthcare system children are at severe risk of developing serious mental health problems due to alienation and violence.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The abuse of children who live in poverty in the slum is well documented. The trafficking of children from one area in Kenya to another area within the country is well known to police and social workers.
We have been involved in the interception of such occurrences, and found the authorities to be quite helpful and knowledgeable of this problem. So many children without parental supervision, as their parent must leave the slum daily to find work, makes the children easy prey. In recent years, agents regularly roam the slum to pick up young girls, and children to sell as merchandise to prostitution rings, that operate within the city. These children are also sent out of the country, to be used as domestic slaves or worse. Generally they are never heard from again.
Airport authorities are wise to these frequent operations, and we have visited with young girls who traffickers have been caught at the airport. The children are usually sent to any orphanage that will keep them.
Teenage girls are promised daily food in return for marrying old men. The Principal of MCEDO keeps attendance at school. Whenever a young girl misses he checks to find her. It has happened that he has found her in a partnership for food with an older man. He takes her back to school and warns the man to stay away. To tackle this problem, and in consultation with the principal of the school, we are developing a program that offers a variety of courses to take place on weekends and holidays (the risk level is higher at these times).
Counselling, along with practical courses that may help young teens who do not attend school, find work such as, hairdressing, sewing, salesgirl, etc. We have volunteers to teach art. We hope to expand the program to teach music as well.
We rented a small space where they can drop in any time, and feel safe. Many of these girls are shy, and afraid. They do not know how to defend themselves from abuse. We hope to help them gain a sense of self. This will take time.
PROGRAMS FOR GIRLS & WOMEN
We work with community leaders and centres to build programmes to empower women. Children need strong maternal role models. We initiate gender equality by empowering local single women.
One of the more successful and permanent programs for women is “Mathare Stitches” our sewing program for single Mothers. We built a sewing room/shop for the women to work out of and to sell their product. It is safely located on the school grounds. We have provided foot pedal sewing machines, as there is no reliable electricity, as well as the necessary sewing materials.
The women produce reusable sanitary napkins as most women in the slum cannot afford disposable sanitary products. They also make small bags out of old cement bags found in the slum. These bags are the lined with traditional Kenyan cloth called, kanga. Canadian volunteers bring the bags to Canada to sell, sending the profits back to the sewing group.
The women also make school uniforms. While MCEDO does not require that a child must have a uniform in order to attend school, many others do. Wearing a uniform is a badge of honour for children, proud to be known by all that they attend school. Some just have a skirt or a blouse or for boys shorts.
The Principal of MCEDO Initiated a soccer program for girls. Girls have not been playing soccer in the slum. This hugely successful program, having won matches outside of the slum, has grown to include even younger girls. This program is crucial for the experience to play, to compete, and to be acknowledged as having the physical skills that boys do. As girls have little status in the slum, this program is building their confidence and self esteem. With these strengths these young girls will face a better future than their mothers.
Various programs are also offered during school holidays. There are no playgrounds in the slum, and the children have no where to go, so they drift back to school which is kept open, even on weekends. Ballet lessons are offered to children.
PCA , on the recommendation of our principal, and volunteer youth workers, has begun to address the needs of young girls at risk of human trafficking. (See section on Human Trafficking)
Volunteers have offered a variety of courses for women, for example; how to set up a savings circle with other women (common to Kenya), supportive counselling and parenting workshops to encourage a stronger sense of community, and other workshops on technology to build computer skills and financial responsibility.
Life in the Slum
There is little to no light at night in the slum, and without safe spaces many single women are robbed and raped.
There is no light in the Slum after dark and it is extremely dangerous for women to go out. Many are beaten and raped in the night.
Women with children in the slum are usually single mothers. Women are considered second class citizens and seem to shoulder much of the responsibility for child rearing including their financial and educational support, and survival.
Women live at a higher risk of abuse and disease.
It is an exhaustive fight for survival and many women are HIV/AIDS positive, forcing children as young as 6 years old to take care of younger siblings.
Women us what they call “ Flying Toilets” using plastic bags rather then risk leaving their shanty to use a public toilette. They then throw the bags outside.
EDUCATION
We go beyond providing each child with a desk and a pencil. We assist with after school programmes. We pay teachers salaries and assist in the purchase of school supplies which include computers. We work toward a higher quality of teaching and discourage the high turnover of instructors by ensuring competitive salaries for qualified teachers. We also coordinate programmes during school holidays to keep children safe and away from gang violence and drugs — which are prevalent throughout the slum. Sometimes we work and partner with local organizations and programmes within the slum where education or health matters align.
Qualified Teachers
Because slum schools are not fully recognized by the Kenyan Government they are referred to a “informal schools.” Education throughout Kenya is not free. In order for slum schools to take part in exams for entrance to secondary school a fee is charged for each student taking the exams in their last year of primary school. Children do not automatically go from primary school to secondary school. Secondary school is not free.
Access to education being an arduous challenge means many teachers have also not been able to complete their teachers certificate. Uncertified teachers often find teaching positions at lesser schools, with very little pay. They offer to teach voluntarily at slum school or for an exchange of food, and try to continue with their education at night.
As slum schools are extremely poor, they must rely on this pool of teachers to “make do.” The quality of teaching provided by these teachers varies greatly from excellent to passable. A qualified head teacher earns on average $200.00 a month. The head teacher is an important leader within the school who sets the teaching standard and of behaviour towards the students. A regular qualified teacher will earn on average $80.00 a month. Few qualified teachers choose to work in Slum schools. We are working to raise both the quality of teaching and the salaries of the teachers. When the students are well taught, more of them can take and pass entrance exams and become eligible to attend secondary school if they can find the funding.
We work with CME Trust, an Ontario based charity, which offers secondary school scholarships to Mathare children and operates out of the school MCEDO. Increasing the potential for students to continue their education is paramount to what our goals are.
ENRICHED LEARNING
Education for slum children is relatively new. In the not too distant past children who grew up in the slum were considered to be successful adults, if they could move down the road and live in a ramshackle tenement building. They never left the slum. They could not read or write, and therefore their future was limited to work as labourers (fundis) or domestics. With the development of schools, teachers, classes, a formal structure of education, along with food, student enrolment grew and continues to grow. It is status for a child to wear a uniform (even part of a uniform) as it tells everyone that they are going to school.
The slum is an unstable, violent environment. Children gravitate to school on weekends, and holidays, to be in a safe place and to have things they can do there. To address this need we created programmes to occupy them, such as ballet classes, taught by a volunteer. We installed a basket ball hoop, for the kids to play with. They colour and chat, and sometimes on Sundays have a church service in the classrooms.
We arrange class outings with the help of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife. They bus the children to Giraffe Manor, and the Daphne Sheldrick, elephant orphanage, and then take them to the National Park, where they visit a small enclosure of baby gazelles, zebra, and other animals. They are give a lecture on the environment followed by a movie, and a hot lunch before returning to the slum. This is the most talked about outing throughout the slum before , and after the visit. Most of the children have never been out of the slum, and have never seen a wild animal.
PCA engaged The Travelling Telescope to come to the school. According to them it was their first lecture in a slum. They gave the upper classes a 2 hour participatory lecture, and demonstration of astronomy, followed by a question and answer period. They set up a huge telescope and all of the kids had the opportunity to see the moon. The kids were so entranced they remained at the school long after dark. We had teachers escort them home for safety.
PCA supports an after school programme, Paamoja. This programme is for young teens in their final year of primary school.
The programme addresses the issues crucial to youth survival in the slum. The curriculum includes teaching critical thinking, while debunking myths , and old superstitions around sexuality, alcohol, drugs, HIV/AIDS.
It addresses the violence so prevalent in the slum.
Trained , and supervised secondary scholarship students, volunteer as animators for this programme. It runs throughout the school year.
The programme co-ordination Titus Kuria, grew up in Mathare Slum, and is a social activist for the mathare community.
The principal of MCEDO school, Benedict Kiage initiated a soccer programme for girls. Girls have never been allowed to play soccer in Mathare. While Canadian John Monroe created MYSA (Mathare Youth Sports Ass.) that now has trained, and helped thousands of boys from the slum, girls were not included.
Females are second class citizens in the slum, and in many communities through Africa. Girls need to be strongly encouraged and helped in all areas of their lives. Benedict felt that through soccer the girls would gain confidence, develop strength to compete, and experience winning.
The first girls team won many local, provincial matches. The travelled to Mombasa to play in final regional matches. They have won many trophies, which are displayed proudly at the school.
We hope, with further funding to increase these extracurricular activities to involve more students and, girls at risk, and to include, art, music, and gymnastics. Extra curricular events and outings help to expand these children’s world beyond the slum. They encourage curiosity, and motivate them to further explore the world around them.
Life in the Slum
Unemployment in Mathare is a best 80%. Having access to education, with dedicated , qualified teachers is the key to the children having a future to look forward to.
Traditionally, teachers, not quite qualified, have worked for chai (tea), and food, if the school cannot afford to pay them. An unqualified teacher may make $30.00 a month or $60.00 depending on his or her experience.
Adults in the slum with no regular work live on $1.00 a day.
No official statistics on Mathare concerning population since the early 90’s. Since that time the population of Nairobi has grown from 5 million to 7 million people.
There are 4-5 schools in Mathare serving a population of 500,000 +.
Many parent s can not afford to educate their children, and many children do not have parents and live under trustee ships, that offer only a place for the child to sleep.
MCEDO as all slum schools takes a small fee for those who can pay. No child is turned away for lack of fee