Saturday, instead of holding a training session, Digital Storytelling visited Smart Club to learn more about Leadership, Democracy, and Governance in Kenya. Here is a short video with the coordinator of the event, Ken Owabe, and one of DSP’s participants, Elias.

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One of Undugu’s successful programs, the one I have been working with all summer, is the Street Association model. Undugu finds groups of street youth and children, basically gangs, and helps them through a transformational process to make positive changes in their lives. Through this process young people are encouraged to be responsible for themselves, to find legitimate ways to earn money, and to reintegrate into society.

Street Associations create their own constitution, deciding what the rules and principles their members will live by. They also elect their own leadership, choosing the positions of chairman(or woman), vice-chairman, treasurer, and secretary. Together they identify the problems that most directly affect them and seek solutions.

Undugu helps them through weekly visits by Project Officers (social workers) and youth facilitators (young people who have successfully completed the Street Association transformational process). Undugu coordinates activities, provides guidance and aid where possible, holds training workshops, and lobbies and advocates on behalf of all street youth. The workshops are held regularly and range in topic from leadership, drugs, HIV/AIDS, and civic rights. Undugu also offers vocational training workshops.

Each street association is unique and although they all share many of the same struggles, how they come together as a group to deal with the problems will determine their success. Many groups suffer from lack of leadership or fights over leadership while others struggle because of drug and alcohol abuse. Despite these problems many Street Associations are successful and their members are able to lead productive lives.

One of the most successful groups that we have encountered is Ahadi. Ahadi is based in the outskirts of Kibera near a market. This group formed because 18 young men between the ages of 15 and 22 decided to become responsible adults. For them the most important thing was to stop hustling and to start earning an income legitimately. The way they did this was by first clearing what was a garbage dump. The process took months, with only one shovel they took turns working. They recycled what they could and burnt the rest. Once the site was cleared, they planted a kale garden. This process started last winter, and by the time I first met the group in early July they had a full garden and a growing business.

They sold large bags of kale for 50 shillings. They saved up the money they made and invested in a wheeled-cart which they now use to transport goods for a fee. Because their garden and the work that they do is so visible they have a much better relationship with their surrounding community than most other Associations.

Ahadi is not perfect. They share the same struggles as the other Associations. They are short on cash, a little bit of money for a new shovel could make a big difference. All the members are homeless, most of them live on the streets and a few live in a little shelter they have build. Like most Street Associations they are not registered with the government, and because they do not own the land they are using this could cause problems in the future.

Overall we feel that Ahadi’s model is an excellent one,especially because of their good ties with the community. For this reason we hope to replicate the same model in other areas around Nairobi.

Check out this short video about Ahadi!

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We have recently experienced a string of fires in Nairobi. Fires are not uncommon; however, in the eight weeks I have only seen two, both of which occurred in this past week. This post will contain mostly photos with a bit of text to explain what happened.

The first fire occurred last Monday night in Westlands right next to the Undugu office. We are experiencing electricity rationing in Nairobi; Monday nights we have no electricity in Westlands. The next day as Barbara and I were approaching the office with Iain Guest, the director of the Advocacy Project, we noticed smoke. As we approached the intersection next to the office we saw that the entire market had burnt down.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

The market was an informal settlement composed of aluminum shacks. I assumed that during the power outage, someone had accidentally knocked over an oil lamp; however, it now seems far more likely that the City Council burnt it down.  Westlands is considered far too nice a neighborhood to have such a market. Apparently, the slum/market area close to a friends office was bulldozed that same week by the City Council.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

In any case, the market is gone. Tuesday and Wednesday people stood around where their shops used to be, unsure what to do. Since then they have started rebuilding, but it is only a mater of time until the market is destroyed again.

The next day, Wednesday, we were in Kibera, taking Iain around to meet some of the Street Associations in the area when we stumbled upon a crowd. Kibera is experiencing the brunt of the electricity shortages, they only have power a couple days a week. Wednesday there was no power. Somehow a fire started in someones home, and it quickly spread to the adjoining houses. We are not sure how the fire started, but this time it is far more likely that the cause can be attributed to the power outage.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

A fire in Kibera, or any slum for that matter, is a huge problem because the houses are built practically on top of each other. If one house were to catch fire, hundred of homes could be destroyed. For this reason people living or working around the houses on fire quickly emptied their homes of all their belongings.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

To prevent the fire from spreading, the houses next to the ones on fire are torn down.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Here you can see men on top of the houses that were on fire, beating down the the walls to smother the flames.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Women stood with all their belongings which were emptied from their homes.

No fire trucks showed up, and even if they had there was no where to pump water from. Instead, people passed buckets of water to try to tame the flames.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya is currently experiencing a major drought. Not only is electricity being rationed, but so is water. We were very worried that they might run out of water before putting out the fire.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Children watched from a nearby balcony.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

The crowd was huge. People watched, helplessly. There was nothing we could do to help.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Seeing these fires reinforced in my mind just how vulnerable people are in the slums. The lack of government services in the slums is shocking. In the end this community was about to get the fire under control and eventually put it out; however, it could easily have been much worse.

I’ve been in Nairobi for two weeks now, and a post is long overdue. I’ve had some difficulty bringing myself to write my first post but not for lack of material; I have experienced and learnt so much since I arrived. However, I think I have been feeling some sort of detachment from reality. Let me try to explain. My first day here I went to visit Kibera, one of the largest slums in the world, with Barbara, the other Advocacy Project Peace Fellow who had already been here for a week before I arrived. It was a good visit; but afterward, when Barbara asked me if I had been shocked by what I had seen, I thought about it and was surprised to find that I wasn’t shocked. In fact Kibera was very much what I expected. I did not feel overwhelmed by the incredible poverty and deprivation I had witnessed.

Throughout the slums you see small children playing or just sitting in the mud.

Throughout the slums you see small children playing or just sitting in the mud.

Over the next week I visited several other areas of Nairobi, upon reflecting on these visits I found that I felt no real emotions in response. I felt a numbness or separation from the horrific poverty and living conditions I was witnessing daily. I found myself greatly disturbed by my lack of emotion, which felt to me like lack of empathy. I had many conversations with friends who tried to help me understand my reaction. But I wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t until I started describing in greater detail some of the things I had seen to a friend back home that I realized that I was actually very much affected by everything I had seen and all the stories I had been told. Typing out the stories over a g-chat, almost in tears in Undugu’s office, I happily realized that I am still human! I simply didn’t known how to process everything I was taking in. This resulted in a sort of paralysis, which really was not allowing me to do my work effectively. I am supposed to be “telling the story” and not just reflecting on the story endlessly.

So, I suppose this gets to be my outlet. And it is time to start telling the story of the marginalized youth in Nairobi. But before I get ahead of myself, I will explain what exactly it is I am supposed to be doing here this summer. For the next two months I will be in Nairobi working with the Undugu Society of Kenya (USK). USK’s mission is to rehabilitate street children and empower communities. In the past few years they have added advocacy to their various programs, hoping to give a voice to the vulnerable and marginalized children and youth in Kenya.

Members of a Street Association gathered to learn about the Digital Storytelling Project.

Members of a Street Association gathered to learn about the Digital Storytelling Project.

Last year Kristina Rosinsky, another Advocacy Project Peace Fellow, started the Digital Storytelling Project, which allowed 12 young people belonging to Undugu’s informal schools and Street Associations to self-advocate using photography and blogs to tell their stories. Together they identified police harassment, glue-sniffing/drugs, and the environment as three of the biggest issues of concern in their lives. Unfortunately, for a multitude of reasons, once Kristina left the project was put on hold.

This summer I will be working with Barbara Dziedzic, another AP Fellow, as well as two of the young men who participated in the project last year, Martin and Joseph. Together we will be relaunching and retooling the program so that it may be sustained, hopefully for years to come. When I asked Martin and Joseph why they wanted to continue working on this project they explained the great need to change the negative stereotypes that young people face in Nairobi. Young people living in the slums throughout Nairobi are most often perceived to be violent criminals, perhaps this stereotype has grown even stronger as a result of the post-electoral violence last year. Martin also expressed the need to talk about the issues that they face everyday to try to change their circumstances. Their blogs can be accessed here: Martin Ndung’u and Joseph Gachira. And so that is what I will be trying to do this summer, or winter in Kenya: trying to help a new group of young people find their voices in the hopes of changing and bettering their lives.

Joseph (left) and Martin (right) help plan the relaunching event over breakfast.

Joseph (left) and Martin (right) help plan the relaunching event over breakfast.