Progress Made: A Board Member Returns to Kibera

by Amy Auguston

As Vice President of the Uweza Board of Directors, I receive nearly daily updates on our programs and beneficiaries on the ground. I’ve also spent two stints volunteering in Kibera with Uweza. So I generally feel well acquainted with the excellent work that Uweza is doing.

Coming to Kibera again this time, nonetheless, has been an enlightening, revitalizing experience.   I have spent the last week and a half in Kibera visiting and working with Uweza's projects. I’m in awe of the progress we’ve made, the community we’re helping to invigorate, and the beneficiaries empowered and nurtured by Uweza’s programs. Seeing the impact firsthand has been exhilarating, humbling, and emotional.

Soon after my arrival, I made my first visit to the Uweza Community Center, which was purchased in May 2012. Managing Director Jen and I had been trudging through the familiar streets of Kibera, crowded, dusty, and sometimes frenetic. Coming into the gates of the center was like entering an oasis of quiet and serenity. The walls are brightly painted and decorated, the premises are sparkling clean, and there are friendly faces to greet each visitor.

The center allows a safe, positive atmosphere for children and young adults to express themselves. Thomas, the journalism teacher and a well-known radio reporter in his own right, leads more than 30 youths in lessons and exercises in writing, researching, interviewing, and photography. You can read some of the students’ work here on the Uweza blog. 

Teacher Thomas, left, and journalism club members view their photos in the Uweza office

Wanderer, an established painter and a Kibera native, teaches students about identifying and mixing colors, and how to paint the landscapes of their mother country. The walls of the art room are resplendent with color wheels and paintings of the art class.

Uweza art class student paints her color wheel

I’ve also visited the soccer fields where nearly one hundred children play, learning teamwork and discipline under the dedicated tutelage of their coaches. The girls’ team, led by coach Joyce, is especially inspiring. The girls learn about how to strengthen and take care of their bodies, during the tumultuous time of adolescence and young adulthood. 

Uweza girls team at training

Another program, after school tuition, provides extra school instruction in the afternoon, to further help the students to succeed academically. The children also receive nourishing uji (porridge) to help them continue to study. The older boys at tuition told me that the Uweza Community Center allows them a safe place to read and study, and to stay away from bad influences like drugs and alcohol. “It saves us from walking up and down the streets. Here we can focus and study,” said one high school tuition student.

The highlight of my trip so far might be meeting the two girls (ages 8 and 14) who I sponsor through Uweza. Over the past years I’ve seen their pictures, read their letters, and gotten updates about them from Uweza staff on the ground. Meeting them and their families in person was emotional. The girls seemed shy and overwhelmed, and I felt much the same way. It’s an incredible experience to know that you have helped someone that you have never met, that you have made a huge difference with so little. Sponsoring them has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I hope that I can sponsor another child through Uweza soon.

Amy, center, with sponsored student Cynthia, right, and her cousins

While I’m here, I’m also gathering feedback from our program beneficiaries and their parents, through focus groups and one-on-one interviews, to learn more about what is good in the programs and what we can improve. Stay tuned on the blog for more information and highlights of the feedback received.

Partnership with Kora

Uweza recently teamed up with Kora Designs, a jewelry company that "merges the worlds of beautiful jewelry and sustainable business development in the belief that both can and will benefit. Our handmade pieces feature recycled materials found and used by local artisans in African developing communities." Kora means "work" in Kinyarwanda, Rwanda's native language. One of Kora's artisans is based in Kibera and uses bone and horn collected from local butcheries to create jewelry.

This year, Kora has created the Uweza necklace, which features dyed recycled cow bone with aluminum wrapping and was designed specifically for us! 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the necklace will go directly toward supporting the Uweza Community Center.

The necklace comes in two different colors, and can be purchased on Kora's website. Be sure to browse through the rest of their beautiful pieces as well!

How you can help Uweza for the holidays!

Happy Holidays from Uweza! We are excited to tell you about some new projects and opportunities to support our work. Check them out:

Kicks for Christmas

Our Soccer League Program (http://uweza.org/soccer) has greatly expanded to include over 180 children from throughout the Kibera slum. Our players are currently all on break from school and have been meeting with their coaches to train seven days a week. Participating in the league keeps them off of the streets and builds valuable skills and funds are always needed for field rent, supplies, and coaches salaries. Through the Kicks for Christmas project, you can sponsor one or more of our players for $10. You will receive a printable Christmas card and ornament-magnet about one of our players to give as a present or keep for yourself! [note: the ornament will arrive after Christmas but we will e-mail you the printable card in time].

Kibera Connection

Do you know a teacher, principal or parent that might be interested in connecting with children in Kibera? Please consider Uweza's Kibera Connection Project. Kibera Connection is a brand new initiative that offers students in the United States a unique opportunity to engage with and learn about children living in Kenya. We have created a website filled with learning resources and connections opportunities. Check it out and fill out the registration form or send us an email if you are interested in getting started or learning more! http://www.uweza.org/kiberaconnection.

Sponsor A Child

Our sponsorship program supports 25 children in Kibera with all the costs for gaining a quality education and provides for their health care for $20/month. Sponsors receive letters, pictures and updates from their sponsored children on a regular basis. We have four girls in need of sponsors, learn more at http://uweza.org/sponsorship.

Uweza Community Center

We are excited to announce the construction of an Uweza Community Center in early 2011! The Uweza Community Center will provide an office, meeting and storage space for our current programs and will be a launching point for new community-run initiatives, including an after-school program for children from Kibera. Funds are greatly needed for construction costs and supplies for the new programs: http://www.uweza.org/communitycenter.

Uweza Shop

Shop for jewelry made by HIV positive women living in Kibera. Funds will be used to provide sustainable financial opportunities for the women in early 2011. http://uweza.org/shop.

Uweza 2009 Financial Report

We strive to be transparent to donors and to keep donors as involved as possible in what is going on with our work in Kenya.

We have just published our financial report for 2009. It provides a description of our program accomplishments and a breakdown of how donated funds were spent. Check it out HERE.

In 2009, we focused our efforts primarily on our health outreach, sponsorship and orphanage programs. 2010 has seen a shift in our programmatic priorities and a change in a few of our projects. We expect to continue changing as an organization as we learn how we are best able to make an impact and reach those in need in Kibera. Our work is often reflective of the performance and priorities of our Kenyan colleagues and feedback from program recipients. We consider their involvement crucial to our success, as they best know their community.

We are currently working on a similar report for the first half of 2010 so expect that soon.

As always, thank you for your support!

10 Ways You Can Help Uweza on World Humanitarian Day

Today is World Humanitarian Day and you may find yourself wondering how you can be a good humanitarian and make a difference today. Well look no further than the Uweza blog!

Here are some suggestions of things you can do to celebrate:

1. Donate! Just $10 can pay one of our soccer coaches for a three training sessions or send a child to school for two months. A little bit goes a long way in Kenya. Seriously.
2. "Like" our Facebook page, suggest it to your friends, and even share this blog post if you are feeling particularly ambitious.
3. Visit the Uweza shop and purchase some Kenyan-made jewelry for yourself, your mom, your friend, your sister, and your grandma.
4. Follow us on Twitter.
5. Watch some (or all) of the videos on our video page to learn more about Uweza and where we work.
6. Gather soccer supplies. We are always in need of shoes, practice jerseys, and socks. Email us at info@uweza.org for more information.
7. Join our mailing list.
8. Hold an Uweza fundraiser. Email us for more details.
9. Employer donation matching. If you are a frequent donor (or a one-time donor. or a prospective donor!), check to see if your employer will match your donation to Uweza.
10. Follow this blog! Click "Follow" on the sidebar to the right.

Frightening Kenyan Statistics

Under 5 Mortality Rate (per 1,000 births)

105 in 1990
128 in 2008

Infant Mortality Rate

68 in 1990
81 in 2008

Life Expectancy

52 years in 1970
60 years in 1990
54 years in 2008

GDP per capita average annual growth rate

1.2% 1970 to 1990
0.1% 1990 to 2008

Thank you!

We have once again created a video to show you some of the ways funds were used this year and to thank you for your support.

Hope you enjoy it!

Merry Christmas from Uweza!

Quick update on our Christmas Dinner Sponsorship: thanks to you, 19 families in Kibera received the makings of a special Christmas dinner (rice, chapati, meat, cooking oil, sugar and cookies) today. More details (and pictures) coming soon.

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday!

"Silent Food Crisis Crippling Kenya Slum"

This article published yesterday by Voice of America points out the toll that skyrocketing food prices have taken on the residents of Kibera. The need for aid and opportunities to help are greater now than ever.

As international headlines draw attention to the political bickering among Kenya's leaders, a crisis almost entirely hidden from view is ravaging Nairobi's Kibera slum. A window into the lives of Kibera's schoolchildren reveals how the silent food crisis in Africa's largest slum is threatening an impoverished generation's future.

On the edge of Nairobi sits the sprawling tin-shack Kibera slum, which with its roughly one million inhabitants is large enough to be a city in itself.

Food prices have more than doubled in the past year, making the always-difficult survival of Kibera's population more challenging.

Plight of children

For a generation of Kibera children growing up with extreme urban poverty, disease, and ethnic violence, the unmanageable price of food is causing much wider and more sinister ripples than simply whether or not they will go to bed hungry. When families cannot afford meals here, it is often the children whose lives change most drastically.

"I am going to go home," said Gideon. "Then if there is no food, then I am going to rubbish."

Gideon dropped out of school last year so he could help support his family by scrounging for scraps in the heaping junk piles of Kibera. If he is lucky, he might make 20 cents a day. Gideon is 13-years old.

The school Gideon used to attend is supported by the World Food Program. Usually the lunch meal the school offers is enough to keep kids attending, as it is likely to be their only meal of the day. But in Gideon's case a fatherless home with younger siblings that need feeding and a mother in the late stages of AIDS has all proven too heavy a burden.

Gideon's mother, who is too sick to work and has been unable to persuade her son to return to school, says she makes her other children continue going to school, even though she can not pay the school fees - otherwise her children would not eat. When the kids are kicked out for being unable to pay, she is nevertheless forced to send them back to the school.

Miriam Wawira is the headmistress at a pre-primary school in Kibera. She says those children whose situations are unfortunate enough to qualify them for admittance into the small school are the fortunate ones in their families. While those young kids receive at least two meals a day during the school week, their siblings are unlikely to be as lucky.

"There are those parents who bring their children here simply because they know in as much as there is no food at home, at least this child can come to school, have porridge at 10 o'clock, have lunch at 1 pm," said Wawira. "And then after that, when they go home, even if there is some little food at home, these children who have been to this school, they will always be the last to be served in their family because there are other children who have been in the house and maybe they have not had lunch or did not have breakfast."

Prices skyrocketed

Food prices in Kenya have shot up, in part due to a severe drought that has left the year's harvest well below the nation's basic demand. Maize flour, the basic staple, has more than doubled in the past year, a trend that holds true for about all other simple grocery items.

For families already engaged in a daily struggle to make ends meet, the unbearable food strain could hardly have come at a more inopportune time.

According to a joint report from humanitarian groups Concern Worldwide, Care International, and Oxfam International, the cost of cooking fuel is up by as much as 50 percent from last year, while the price of water has doubled. Meanwhile, the global economic downturn has helped shrink incomes in Kibera by 20 percent.

Steven Okello, a project officer based in Kibera for CARE-Kenya, explains the crisis has remained largely under the radar because the problem is not that there is no food, rather, the prices are simply too steep.

"The food is available, that is the paradox," he said. "The food is available, but the prices are unaffordable for people living in Kibera. Right now if you look at maize flour for instance, one packet goes for 100 shillings. Yet a majority of people living in Kibera live on less than 70 shillings per day."

Read the rest of the article here.

Uweza on Twitter

Uweza has hopped on the bandwagon and joined Twitter.

Follow us here: www.twitter.com/uwezakenya.