Hope Bright Future School Soweto Slums, Nairobi, Kenya

I wanted to tell you all about the fun holiday that I had over the weekend. I took pictures of the two hotel rooms we stayed (Nakuru first, Nairobi second). I wanted to tell you some stories…but they don’t seem as important as what I saw on my last day in Nairobi. The place is called Soweto (sew-wet-o) Slums.

It is a slum area in Nairobi near the International Airport. It’s not nearly as big as the world famous, largest slum in the world, called Kibera (Key-bear- a), which is also located in Nairobi. This slum is one of the many forgotten slums in Nairobi, in Kenya.

A friend of ours, Mary volunteers in the Soweto. She works with widows and orphan children. Her and husband, Victor, have a school in the slum and they are trying to provide free education and a feeding program to the children of this slum.

A bit of information on Soweto. It is about 3 kilometers in length and 1 kilometer in width. This small area has over 200,000 people living in it. This place is mostly made up of widows and children and single women and children. Prostitution and alcoholism is very high here as well.

When we walked down the hill to Soweto, what was directly in front of me, seemed quite nice. There was a mud and metal-made bridge that ran over the top of a river and there was a brick wall that surrounded Soweto. Are you sure this is a slum? At least on the outside of the wall, it appeared nice.

As we approached the bridge, Daniel told me to look to my left. There was this massive dump site, massive. There were birds flying all around it, as per a typical dump. But then my heart broke when I saw that there were people on the dump site as well. They were scrounging through the garbage for food and work. Apparently, people will go to the dump and collect as much plastic as they can to bring to the factories in the area. They sell the plastic to these companies for melting down and reusing. On a good day, someone collecting the plastic can make about fifty shillings. That’s about $0.40 per day, all day job.

As we got closer to the bridge to cross, the stench of garbage and feces grew stronger. I looked down at the water – it was a dark, smoky grey color with garbage floating all around it. The river is used to dispose of human waste in the slum. There are no sewer pipes in the slum. The outdoor toilets have metal basins inside of them and when the basins are filled up, men (this is their job) come and remove the metal basins, take the basins to the river, dump the waste and then return the basins to the owners. Three people died this year from drinking from the river. It was an absolutely horrible sight to see.

We crossed the bridge, passed the beautiful brick wall and entered in to Soweto (side note: on the map of Nairobi, this area is mapped as Soweto Estates). There was the constant smell of garbage in the air with the odd gust of human waste. I don’t know the last time white people went in to Soweto but as soon as we entered, we heard the famous word ‘Mzungu’ being shouted from all directions, from all children. We visited the school that Mary and Victor have started. It’s absolutely wonderful and they are reaching out to the children of this poor place.

As we got closer to the bridge to cross, the stench of garbage and feces grew stronger. I looked down at the water – it was a dark, smoky grey color with garbage floating all around it. The river is used to dispose of human waste in the slum. There are no sewer pipes in the slum. The outdoor toilets have metal basins inside of them and when the basins are filled up, men (this is their job) come and remove the metal basins, take the basins to the river, dump the waste and then return the basins to the owners. Three people died this year from drinking from the river. It was an absolutely horrible sight to see. We crossed the bridge, passed the beautiful brick wall and entered in to Soweto (side note: on the map of Nairobi, this area is mapped as Soweto Estates). There was the constant smell of garbage in the air with the odd gust of human waste. I don’t know the last time white people went in to Soweto but as soon as we entered, we heard the famous word ‘Mzungu’ being shouted from all directions, from all children. We visited the school that Mary and Victor have started. It’s absolutely wonderful and they are reaching out to the children of this poor place.

I wanted to tell you all about the fun holiday that I had over the weekend. I took pictures of the two hotel rooms we stayed (Nakuru first, Nairobi second). I wanted to tell you some stories…but they don’t seem as important as what I saw on my last day in Nairobi. The place is called Soweto (sew-wet-o) Slums. It is a slum area in Nairobi near the International Airport. It’s not nearly as big as the world famous, largest slum in the world, called Kibera (Key-bear-a), which is also located in Nairobi. This slum is one of the many forgotten slums in Nairobi, in Kenya. A friend of ours, Mary volunteers in the Soweto. She works with widows and orphan children. Her and husband, Victor, have a school in the slum and they are trying to provide free education and a feeding program to the children of this slum. A bit of information on Soweto. It is about 3 kilometers in length and 1 kilometer in width. This small area has over 200,000 people living in it. This place is mostly made up of widows and children and single women and children. Prostitution and alcoholism is very high here as well. When we walked down the hill to Soweto, what was directly in front of me, seemed quite nice. There was a mud and metal-made bridge that ran over the top of a river and there was a brick wall that surrounded Soweto. Are you sure this is a slum? At least on the outside of the wall, it appeared nice. As we approached the bridge, Daniel told me to look to my left. There was this massive dump site, massive. There were birds flying all around it, as per a typical dump. But then my heart broke when I saw that there were people on the dump site as well. They were scrounging through the garbage for food and work. Apparently, people will go to the dump and collect as much plastic as they can to bring to the factories in the area. They sell the plastic to these companies for melting down and reusing. On a good day, someone collecting the plastic can make about fifty shillings. That’s about $0.83 CDN per day, all day job