Bringing Clean Water to Kibera

Shining Hope's water tower

Most homes in Kibera have no running water, forcing individuals to buy their water from private vendors who charge two to ten times what those living outside the slums pay for water. Often this water is not properly stored or treated, causing widespread water-borne disease.

In order to offer a safe, affordable, and convenient alternative, Shining Hope is building a new water point in Kibera, which will soon be the slum’s largest single source of clean water. A 100,000-liter tank, fed from the Nairobi municipal water system, will provide safe and reliable water to thousands of Kibera residents.

This water will be treated with chlorine and distributed to the community at our new water kiosk. We will be charging an affordable price of two shillings (approximately two US cents) per 20-liter container, and the money collected will cover the cost of water pump operations, chlorine, and the salary of the water kiosk attendant. Our water will be cheaper than most water currently for sale in Kibera, and will be clean, safe, and reliable. 

Last Friday, water began to fill Shining Hope’s new water tank and we will begin selling water within the next few weeks. We are also developing a water education program to tell people about clean water and proper hygiene and sanitation.

This clean water access point is important in improving the lives of Kiberans, and we are excited to be opening it to the public in the very near future! 

Community Health Worker Program

In heavily populated regions like Kibera, information tends to travel by word of mouth. When Shining Hope for Communities opened the Johanna Justin-Jinich Community Clinic, getting the word out about clinic services was one of the primary goals. One of the ways this is continuously being accomplished is through the Community Health Worker (CHW) program. Shining Hope launched this program last June by recruiting from the Kibera community. The applicants were extensively trained by Shining Hope and given exams to become fully-fledged CHWs.

The goal of the CHW program is to change behaviors and attitudes towards health and healthcare. This is done through door-to-door awareness, where each of the six CHWs has a set area in Gatwekera (the Kibera village in which Shining Hope is located) in which they register households and do follow-up visits. The registration allows the CHWs to get a sense of the needs of each household. For example, if a pregnant woman is in one of their target households, they will speak to her about the JJJ Clinic’s antenatal care program. They also find out the ages of the children living in each household to determine which immunizations are needed.

According to Maggie, the head of the CHWs, the biggest challenge has been gaining the trust of the Kibera community. Many people did not understand that the CHWs had been trained and were there to help them. She believes this challenge has mostly been overcome, thanks to the positive reputation the CHWs now have in the community, and people are focusing more on their health now than ever before. The number of people who are now visiting the clinic thanks to the CHWs has amazed Maggie. She knows that more mothers are visiting the clinic specifically because of the CHW program. Maggie says one of the biggest issues in Gatwekera that the CHW program has helped with is malnutrition. The clinic gives out fortified flour to malnourished children and, thanks to the CHWs, families have been participating in the program in record numbers.

Maggie hopes to see the CHW program continue to grow as the CHWs receive more training, especially around first aid. She wants the CHWs to be able to help sick individuals by dispensing health information and basic care when the clinic is closed. A big goal of Maggie’s is to foster partnerships between Shining Hope and other organizations with CHWs in Kibera. She believes it would be beneficial for everyone to share and develop the most effective means of reaching the community.

The CHW program is vital to Shining Hope’s goals because it functions as the link between the community and the clinic – and to the rest of Shining Hope’s services. Access to healthcare, and an understanding of its importance, will continue to increase for Kibera residents because of the tireless work of Shining Hope’s CHWs.

Microfinance at Kibera School for Girls

Some of the women of 'Gatwekera

Tina, the social worker at Kibera School for Girls (KSG), had been troubled by some of her home visits. Many of the students’ uniforms were quite dirty and Tina found out that their mothers weren’t able to afford laundry soap – which only costs ten cents.

Tina thought that a savings group, where they could pool their money and take out loans, was just what these mothers needed. She pitched her idea at a parents’ meeting—and on January 21, 2011, ten women came to the first KSG mothers’ microfinance meeting. Tina wanted these mothers to have the ability to rely on themselves, and have the chance to improve their own, and their children’s, lives 

The beginning was difficult, with the women unsure if they could trust each other to pay back the loans. Tina facilitated discussions about trust, explaining that the goal of the group was to improve lives of every participant—which couldn’t be accomplished without trust. The women agreed and the group flourished.

Since then, the group has grown to include 32 women and has split into two sub-groups: Gatwekera, which includes women who live in Gatwekera, the Kibera village where Shining Hope is located, and Vumilia, which means ‘to persevere’ in Swahili, and includes women who live in other Kibera villages. Every single one of these women now runs an independent business, selling vegetables, charcoal, or cloth; some even run their own salons.

The women meet once a week where they each bring 50 shillings (roughly 50 cents) and individuals have the option to ask for loans for business ventures or emergency needs. They have one month to repay the loan plus interest. Tina loves seeing the women work together; she is proud of and inspired by their progress.

Field Trip to the National Museum!

In 2009, The Kibera School for Girls had two wonderful volunteers: Kate O'Reilly-Jones and Matt Podolin. Both have stayed involved since then, and a few weeks ago they used their tax returns to sponsor a field trip for The Kibera School for Girls! The trip had an amazing itinerary: a visit to Kenya's National Museum, followed by lunch out. After lunch, the girls went to the snake park, and then had a thrilling experience on paddle boat rides in Nairobi's main park. They capped off the day with an ice cream treat. We can't thank Matt and Kate enough for giving the girls this incredibly fun and educational experience!

From Kate:

When Matt and I started volunteering at the Kibera School for Girls in the fall of 2009, I was struck by how many kids in Kibera never leave the slum, despite living minutes away from a bustling city center. Their parents certainly can’t afford bus fare to take them into town, so most kids in Kibera spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week surrounded by metal shacks and dirt roads slippery with sewage.

The Kibera School staff works tirelessly to prepare their students to excel, both within Kibera and wherever the girls choose to go in life. Still, I realized that it might be tough for a six-year old to imagine succeeding at life outside Kibera (college? medical school?) if she has never really seen life outside Kibera.

With this in mind, we took the girls on a zoo fieldtrip that winter, hoping to give them a unique experience and show them a glimpse of the world outside their own. Since they enjoyed it (and other school trips that followed) so much, Matt and I thought it would be fun to sponsor another fieldtrip this past Friday – this time to the Nairobi National Museum and the park. The hope was that by giving them a day free from the stresses of Kibera, they would have a chance to relax, learn something new, and think about all the possibilities the world has to offer. And of course, eat massive amounts of ice cream.

SHOFCO's First Community Baseline Survey

Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) recently completed its first research project in Kibera. We trained 20 community members from Kibera to conduct interviews and use GPS units to randomly locate the participants’ houses. Programs Director Ari Tolman led this training and helped create a comprehensive survey that covered all aspects of life in collaboration with our research team. The SHOFCO interviewers successfully completed interviews with over 1,200 households in Kibera.

We are so excited to enter the data and analyze the results! The goal of the survey is to assess people’s true needs in Kibera and SHOFCO’s impact over time. We will conduct the survey again one year from now, and every few years after that.

On December 18th we held a huge community celebration at the SHOFCO Community Center to thank the community for participating in this important project. Over 1,500 people came to enjoy food, music, and a raffle drawing. We are thrilled with the success of this project!!

The Johanna Justin-Jinich Community Clinic is Now Open!

The Johanna Justin-Jinich Community Clinic opened its doors to the community last week! With the opening, all 67 students from the Kibera School for Girls came for a special clinic, so that our clinicians can get to know and follow the health of all of the girls.

The Community Health Workers have been spreading the word, recruiting patients throughout Kibera to come receive personalized and quality care -- and there has been fantastic feedback! One of our patients told us she came because she had heard that "such good services were being offered at this clinic."

The last few days have proved the need for a clinic here. Our clinicians have already stitched up a gash in a patient's face, treated over 10 cases of malaria, and followed up with the sickest of our patients.

We are excited to see what an impact the clinic will have and are proud of all of our Kenyan staff for making this abstract idea a reality!

Margaret's Safe Place Opens!

As of yesterday, five of our students have officially moved into Margaret's Safe Place -- our new boarding facility housing our most vulnerable girls. They are living there with our school's wonderful social worker. The girls have been eagerly anticipating moving into the house all week. According to her kindergarten teacher Julia, one of the girls kept asking, "Is it Wednesday yet??"

After school let out, the girls walked to the house with teacher Julia, our administrator, our social worker, and several of our American volunteers. We were struck by how few belongings they had -- one of our volunteers realized she had more in her day's backpack than these girls had in the world. The walk over was very sweet; the girls held hands the whole way there, and we could see the start of a lovely new family dynamic. When they arrived, we gave them a tour of the house, including their new backyard with banana trees! Teacher Julia is seen here helping the girls feel comfortable in their new home.

The girls excitedly ran up the stairs and discovered their names on their doors, and they were thrilled about their new rooms with bunk beds, flip-flops ("slippers"), toothbrushes and toothpaste, towels, and of course... beanie babies!

Once they had settled down about their new "slippers," the girls were enchanted by the window. They are not accustomed to having more than one level in a home, and are definitely not used to a room with a view. They stood in front of the window for several minutes pointing out anything they could see.

The girls are so happy to be living with their friends - it is such a wonderful environment for them. They quickly figured out that they can play together whenever they want now, and they didn't waste any time! They had a blast running around in the front yard.

Once the girls had seen their new house, we sat down at the living room table to have a little soda to celebrate their big move. We are incredibly grateful to Margaret and Bob Patricelli for giving these girls a beautiful, safe home!

Sex-Ed Classes with our SHOFCO Girls

The shocking statistic that 66% of girls in Kibera trade sex-for-food to survive, some as early as age six, is devastating enough on paper. But the lived-reality of the rampant violence against women and girls that Shining Hope works with necessitates action. That's why this June, Shining Hope took on a new initiative: to provide the young female participants of the SHOFCO youth programming with the tools to protect their physical and emotional sexual health.

In addition to weekly soccer practice, for the past few months, over 20 SHOFCO junior girls (under 18) have been coming together on Sunday afternoons in the Shining Hope Community Center for facilitated workshops addressing all physical and emotional issues associated with growing up: puberty, menstruation, sexually-transmitted infections, contraception, sexual assault prevention and response, and self-esteem. In these interactive workshops, the girls have gotten the opportunity to create and discuss tough relationship scenarios, learn about different methods of protection, play games, and ask "anonymous questions." In addition, these workshops have been included monthly sanitary napkin distribution and weekly snacks.

Yesterday, we took a mini-field trip with the girls group to Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi for an afternoon of outdoor games and team-building. It was so much fun!

In the near future, we plan to host high-school peer-facilitators from Kibera trained in health education, and a guest speaker--a survivor of sexual assault from Kibera. In the more distant future, we hope to expand this program to provide more resources for these incredibly at-risk teens: our wish list includes annual school uniform distribution, art-therapy, and more field trips. Stay tuned!

SHOFCO Clean-Up in Kibera!

This past weekend, our SHOFCO Youths organized a wildly successful "Kibera Clean-Up" based at our new Shining Hope Community Center. Over 200 Kibera residents turned out for the event, and the mood was fun and upbeat. Everyone was excited to be cleaning up the neighborhood!

Participants received lunch in our Community Center as well as a bright blue Shining Hope for Communities t-shirt. The shirts have our new logo on the front and Kennedy's original SHOFCO logo (from 2005!) on the back. We plan to host Clean-Ups twice a month to encourage community involvement and unity.

Opening Ceremony: Shining Hope Community Center and Bio-Latrine Center!

We officially opened both our new Shining Hope Community Center and our Bio-Latrine Center this week! The opening ceremony included songs from the students at the Kibera School for Girls, speeches from Kennedy and Jessica, and speeches of gratitude from community members. A Senior Representative from Umande Trust - the organization who built the technology for the Bio-Latrine Center - also spoke. We provided food and drinks, as well as balloons for kids in the neighborhood! It was a truly happy occasion.

The Community Center will house a public library and computer center, is currently where our Community Health Workers are being trained until the JJJ Clinic opens, and has a large multi-purpose room that is already being used for community meetings, celebrations, and the SHOFCO Women’s Empowerment Project (SWEP). We are so excited to see what other creative uses our Community Center will get!

The Bio-Latrine Center houses our beautiful new pit latrines and showers, located adjacent to the Kibera School for Girls. Its technology converts waste into methane gas, which can then be harvested for use. There is also a hand-washing station and a water tank attached to the Bio-Latrine Center. The Bio-Latrine would not exist without the generous support of the Platkin-Teutsch family. We would also like to thank the Newman's Own Foundation for supporting the expansion of this project.

We plan to have clean, filtered water technology as the next step to this project!

Building the Johanna Justin-Jinich Clinic

We are incredibly excited about the progress of the Johanna Justin-Jinich clinic! The first floor of the two-story structure is complete, and workers (many of whom are school dads) will be starting on the second floor next week. The clinic will be outfitted with a friendly waiting room, examining rooms, maternal care, a laboratory and a pharmacy.

The community health worker trainings have been going fantastically. A woman from Kibera, who has been a community health worker in Kibera for over 10 years, leads the sessions, which have covered topics ranging from HIV/AIDS and TB care to the pathology of cancer to maternal and prenatal care of pregnant women. The community health workers will provide a link between the community and the clinic, providing educational outreach, referring people to the clinic, and providing follow-up care. There will also be a specific focus on prenatal health to ensure that women have a safe and reliable place to turn during pregnancy. To learn more about the state of maternal health in Kenya, please read a recent article in The Standard (one of Kenya's national newspapers).

We are also thrilled to announce that we have hired an amazing doctor from Nairobi Women’s Hospital, who specializes in women’s health. Not only has he been helping with the development of the clinic’s programs and services, but he has been leading a few of the community health worker training sessions. We are so excited to have such a committed doctor and his expertise on board!

The Kibera World Cup

This weekend SHOFCO hosted the first annual Kibera World Cup! Twenty youth soccer teams (boys 16 and under) from all over Kibera competed in the two-day tournament. The games coincided with the final games of the actual World Cup in South Africa and mirrored its structure. On the first day, teams were placed into lettered groups where they played “round robin” style. Two fields, three referees, and forty games in one day! Winners from each group competed in the knockout rounds on the second day, including the quarterfinals, semifinals, and a big final match at the end of the tournament.

SHOFCO's 16 and under team finished 4th place, after a tough penalty shootout loss to “More Fire” in the semifinals (Other creative team names from the tournament include: “Super Disc”, “Lexus”, and “Mexico”). Eventually, “More Fire” defeated “Mexico” in an exciting final game that all of the teams stayed to watch. The top four teams in the tournament all won official World Cup soccer balls and cash prizes, handed out in a closing ceremony at the end of the game.

During the event we also enjoyed performances from the acrobatic dance troupe “Kibera Hamlets”, as well as an exuberant skit from the SHOFCO youth drama team based on HIV/AIDS awareness. We also had face painting and balloons for the younger kids, as well as juice, soda, bread, and biscuits for the players and fans all watching. Before the final match, the Shining Hope volunteers (“Team Obama”) were challenged to a friendly match against the SHOFCO girls soccer team, which was a lot of fun, but highlighted our embarrassing mzungu soccer skills. Hundreds of people came to watch the games, especially kids, and everyone had a blast!

This amazing community event would not have been possible without our amazing youth soccer director, “Coaches” (his nickname – his real name is Ken, but he's known by everyone as “Coaches” so there's no confusion with our boss Kennedy!). Not only does he organize and coach all of SHOFCO's youth soccer teams, but he organized the entire event with Leah, our incredible Development Director. All in all, it was a great weekend for SHOFCO and a perfect way for the community to celebrate the World Cup!