SPECIAL FUNDRAISER - $40,000 To Rebuild the school

Sponsor a child: $25 per month*

Target: Sponsor 100 students per year

*This includes Tuition fees, textbooks, stationery, uniform, lunch and breakfast daily.

Al- Muntazir School is located in a slum within the city of Nairobi and in our first Africa trip, we were blessed with the opportunity to visit this rundown yet utterly magical place.

It was founded many years ago by a lady whose own husband had deserted her to look after 3  children and has been housing four other destitute trying her level best to get these unfortunate ones a good education. She later started looking after impoverished children of her community until some years later she was nurturing over 100 children in a makeshift school made out of tin shelters within the slums of Nairobi. They since got evicted from that location and have now gotten a parcel of land to build their new school (with an 8yr lease).

Despite the lack of electricity, poor insulation and poor access to freshwater both the children and teachers cherish every opportunity to teach and learn.

I still remember empty hessian bags of sugar being used around the classrooms as posters…

Witnessing this sort of dedication, sincerity and innocence left us speechless and in tears.

Visiting this school was a life-changing moment in my life and a standout memory that will never leave my mind.

 

Some information about the slum

There are approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population and occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses about 250,000 of these people.

Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world.

Land Ownership
The Government owns all the land. 10% of people are shack owners and many of these people own many other shacks and let them out to tenants. The remaining 90% of residents are tenants with no rights.

Housing
The average size of a shack in this area is 12ft x 12ft built with mud walls, a corrugated tin roof with a dirt or concrete floor. The cost is about KES 700 per Month ($12). These shacks often house up to 8 or more with many sleeping on the floor.

The population
The original settlers were the Nubian people from the Kenyan/Sudanese border – they now occupy about 15% of Kibera, are mostly Muslim and are also mostly shack owners.

Electricity
Only about 20% of Kibera has electricity. UN-Habitat is in the process of providing it to some parts of Kibera – this will include street lighting, security lighting and connection to shacks (this costs KES 900 per shack, which in most cases is not affordable).

Water
Until recently Kibera had no water and it had to be collected from the Nairobi dam. The dam water is not clean and causes typhoid and cholera. Now there are two mains water pipes into Kibera, one from the municipal council and one from the World Bank. Residents collect water at KES 3 per 20 litres.

Sewage
In most of Kibera, there are no toilet facilities. One latrine (hole in the ground) is shared by up to 50 shacks. Once full, young boys are employed to empty the latrine and they take the contents to the river.

Unemployment
Kibera is near the industrial area of Nairobi where up to 50% of the available workforce is employed (usually in fairly unskilled jobs). However, there is still an unemployment rate of 50%. This is why the training and teaching of skills are very important.