Business: Art: Hard work and Artist says he is not consistency wins for dropping his pencil business lady for any career >>> Pg 6 >>> Pg 4 FREE hetto Mirror Do not buy G October 2016 Real life stories from the slums ISSUE 34 Ghetto Mirror @Ghettomirror_KE ghettomirroronline.wordpress.com [email protected] NYS exit leaves behind filthy community mess Months after the National Youth Service volunteers stopped their environmental clean-up projects, huge mounds of garbage are lining up the streets, trenches are choking with rubbish and the community is at a loss for solutions. By Ghetto Mirror Team Walking along the streets of Dandora, you will not miss the stench emanating from piles of garbage lying on the roadside, competing for space with passing vehicles. Occasionally, you will see dogs scavenging through these piles looking for something to gnaw, while street boys rummage for pickings to salvage and take to the main dumpsite in exchange for a few coins. A few kilometres north of Dandora is Mathare slum and the situation here is worse. River Gitathuru, a tributary of the Nairobi River, paints a grim picture of desolation after halting of the NYS Programme. continued on page 3 ....... Cancer Awareness Month ....... Welcome to Johana Justin Jinich Clinic (Kibera) every Tuesday for FREE BREAST and CERVICAL Cancer Screening ISSUE 34 Ghetto Mirror | 2 OCTOBER 2016 We welcome comments and letters on topical issues on the stories we publish on [email protected]. TALKING POINT You can also drop them in our offices at Gatwekera near PAG Church. Editor’s Note ctober has been a busy month in the global calendar. We have celebrated several days including World Teacher’s Day, International Day Oof the Girl Child, World Mental Health Day and International Peace Day among others. October is also the Cancer Awareness Month. Closer home, local communities joined the world to mark all these days by holding public forums and processions. In this month’s issue of Ghetto Mirror, you’ll read about these activities from various areas in the County. The striking part about these commemorations is that they are all tied to one common theme: achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, attaining these goals will be a pipe dream if we focus too much on the big picture rather than the smaller picture which is more realistic and attainable. It is often said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. For us, this one step is improving the conditions of those around us who are in dire need of assistance. For instance, to win the fight against cancer, we should start by finding more affordable solutions for treatment of cancer patients locally instead of constantly donating to harambees to take sickly patients for treatment abroad. To improve security and maintain order in our cities, we should start by getting rid of street families which have now become a menace in our society. It is imperative to find them shelter and access to basic rights so that crime and vagrancy can be a thing of the past. In order to secure a better future for our children, we should start by prioritizing proper healthcare, better quality education and higher infant survival rates for all the children across the country. from page 1 Every major goal is achieved only by making small achievable targets, and this includes the global Sustainable Development Goals. This calls for individual effort, By the time NYS volunteers community effort and national effort. began environmental clean-up If everyone plays their part, then achieving the global goals will be a simple walk campaigns, the river had been in the park. reduced to a grimy stream filled with garbage and industrial waste. Moreover, large amounts of metal and oil waste were evident in the river since it passes through Quote of the month the ‘garage district’ of Ngara, where vehicles are repaired and the waste Shed spotlight on boy child too is dumped into the river. By Jane Macharia be equally horrified. It becomes worse when law Mathare residents say that There is definitely a pecking order officers attack the street families and when NYS volunteers came in, It is the teacher who nternational Day of the Girl which the boys follow religiously; the harass them for varied reasons. they reclaimed the river, cleaned Child was celebrated across older boys control the pack while the out most of the garbage and planted the world on the 11th of this younger boys worship them. In order Revolution trees along the banks, giving it a new I to be accepted into the pack, younger lease of life. month. Organizations, governments Early this year, there were alleged makes the difference, and individuals alike came together boys have to pay a fee; sometimes in reports of a killing spree in Eldoret However today River Gitathuru in pomp and colour to mark their new cash, other times in kind. Town where council and police stands still, a shadow of its former milestones. Stories have been told of rampant officers made a surprise swoop on self. Months of dumping waste As is the norm, they noted their sodomy, defilement and molestation street families in the ‘California has reduced it to worse than it was not the classroom. successes in the last year and made among these groups. It is no secret that Barracks’ dumpsite, clobbering them before. The black, murky waters new commitments to give the girl the HIV rates among street boys, and and pushing them towards River release a disgusting stench which child more opportunities for growth street families as a whole, is extremely Sosiani. 11 children died in this swoop hits your nostrils several meters and equality. This is the fourth year high. alone, majority of them boys. for the Day to be marked, since its Not only that, the rate of physical Incidents like this make one to Michael Morpurgo inception in 2012. violence is so high among these groups pause and wonder: who will speak We can never dispute the fact that because every individual has to protect out for the boy child? Boys, too are girls and women have always been himself and his group’s territory. vulnerable and they need as much care A publication of Shining Hope For at the back seat of society and have and attention as is being given to girls. extensively been left out of major They also need to be nurtured into Communities decisions and policy developments. If the society responsible adults who can take care of Even so, ever since the day of the themselves and of those around them. girl child was launched, an interesting continues to If the society continues to ignore boys Editor Joyce Mutheu effect has taken place: the boy child as it is currently doing, a revolution has been forgotten. ignore boys as it is in the making where all these boys, So much focus has been put on neglected and desperate, will one day Illustrations the girl child that nobody is talking is currently doing, rise up to fight for their space. Ray Mwale about the boy child anymore. Sadly, Unfortunately the very same girls the boy child’s needs are slowly but a revolution is in who have been sheltered in a bubble of steadily sliding into oblivion. An safety and privilege will be the victims Contributors obvious indicator of this fact is the the making where of this revolution. The choice is ours Fred Maingi, Philip Ocheche, Jane Macharia, Boniface Felix, sheer number of street boys running to make. Mary Ruguru, Sajid Musa, Stella Yamumo, Adan Ibrahim, the streets all around the country. all these boys, Organizations and governments Vincet Elegwa, Mohammed Ali, Felix Omondi, Richard Jobieseh, Major towns like Nairobi, Eldoret alike need to sit down and lay down Ibrahim Abdullahi, Tonny Oluoch, Erick Mose and Kisumu have taken the weight of neglected and strategies to include boys in their & Odongo Moody. these vagabonds who spend their days decision-making processes. They need sniffing glue and their nights picking desperate, will one to devise new ways of curbing the pockets of unsuspecting passersby. soaring HIV rate among boys and how Technical Assistance If you take some time to sit day rise up to fight to keep them off the streets. Albanous Gituru & Rose Adera and watch a group of these boys Perhaps a good start would be interacting, you will learn so much for their space. creating an International Day of the Kenya Railways staff collect garbage from the railway line and load it on to an open carriage for disposal. E-mail: [email protected] from their relationships, and you will Boy Child. Garbage sometimes blocks the railway line, preventing the train from passing. Photo | Kaluki Katanai ISSUE 34 OCTOBER 2016 Ghetto Mirror | 3 NYS exit leaves community in filthy state zone. Mugging, violent robberies and rape were the order of the day, especially around the Karungu Bridge which joins Grogon A area to Baba Dogo slum. “When the NYS youth empowerment programme started, crime rates went down drastically because the youngsters who had been involved in criminal activities became engaged by the programme,” says Mulwa. As a result, the young people were able to know each other more, enhancing cohesion among members of the Grogon A Community. Moreover, there was evidently improved sanitation and cleanliness in the surroundings. Mulwa says the most memorable project by the NYS corps was a training on food security which involved the creation of sack gardens. The gardens were located on A man rakes out garbage from a drain at Lindi stage in Kibera.