Helping to overcome the challenges of life in Nairobi’s slums

The recently established Dorothea Rescue Centre forms just one component of the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret’s response to the poverty of Nairobi’s slums, and the response of the Kenyan Church.

At first glance, the poverty can easily be overlooked. Since achieving independence in 1963, Kenya has benefited from relative stability compared to its counterparts in East Africa, many of whom have been plagued by civil wars in the post-colonial era. Visitors to the country’s capital arriving at the first-class Jomo Kenyatta International Airport can cruise into the city along the Nairobi Expressway toll road, recently constructed with Chinese funding. Along the way, luxurious hotels and high-rise offices and apartment buildings make clear that this is a dynamic city, where affluent areas could easily be mistaken for areas of Europe or North America.

Yet there is another Nairobi which lags far behind. Of the city’s five million residents, around half live in slums. Millions of people reside in ramshackle housing, without access to basic services and with few  means of benefitting from the rising tide of economic growth. Unsurprisingly, the children of the slums are particularly vulnerable to the social deprivation which surrounds them, and many find themselves homeless at a very young age.

In spite of the traditionalism of Kenyan society, family breakdown is common in these areas, as is physical and sexual abuse within family homes. Widespread illegal drug use and the consumption of bootleg alcohol creates unsafe home environments, while also presenting temptation to children and teenagers who cannot see the potential drawbacks when even a sober life carries with it so much risk.

In such an environment, problems such as the severe regional food crisis fall hardest on people of limited means. Although the food crisis caused by several years of drought is more severe in isolated rural parts of the country, slum dwellers in this sprawling metropolis are being impacted.

The Assumption Sisters of Eldoret, an order founded by Kerry native, Bishop Joseph Brendan Houlihan in 1962, first began caring for some of the capital’s many street boys in the Kwetu Home of Peace in the 1990s. Over the years, Kwetu has grown from being a feeding centre to become a rehabilitation facility where vulnerable young boys are rescued from the slums, cared for and treated, before ongoing and long-term support is provided to help the boys and young men complete secondary school and after that, to carry on their studies at university or vocational school level.

Recognising the need for a similar facility for girls, the fast-growing order decided to establish the Dorothea Rescue Centre under the leadership of Sister Caroline Ngatia, a trained teacher who had worked with the boys in Kwetu for several years. Since it opened last year, the facility has continued to evolve, and on 1st December 2021, Sister Caroline and the entire community welcomed Bishop Norman King’oo Wambua who officially opened their new chapel.

According to Sister Caroline Ngatia, Director of Dorothea Rescue Centre, the push factors leading to homelessness differ between young boys and young girls who find themselves sleeping rough in outdoor shacks, between buildings or on the narrow strips of land which lie between busy highways and roundabouts.

Often, boys flee their homes to escape abusive fathers and stepfathers. On the other hand, girls tend to follow their mothers there, often to become mothers themselves at a very early age. This intergenerational cycle of poverty and family breakdown seen all across Kenya is hard to break. The Assumption Sisters of Eldoret is just one group of many which has committed itself to trying to accomplish this feat.

Sixteen girls live in the Dorothea Centre, all of whom had first been identified on the streets by the sisters during their frequent visits to Nairobi’s slums: areas of destitution and crime which continue to provide a stark contrast to the prosperity of a rapidly-growing economic powerhouse. A careful process is followed during the two annual intakes of new residents. After parents have been traced and parental consent has been obtained for the girls to go to Dorothea, new arrivals begin a three month integration process, beginning with three weeks of detoxification. In spite of their tender years, even the youngest of the girls frequently arrive hooked on illegal drugs and other substances. The use of cannabis (known locally as banghi) by young people is rife in Nairobi’s slums, as is the sniffing of jet fuel and glue.

One of the most recent arrivals is conspicuous for her small size and obvious vibrancy. A few months ago, this six year old was struggling with withdrawal symptoms, having been provided with drugs by her own mother, a dealer within the slums. Now she plays happily with her new friends and looks forward to starting school, and a new life beyond that.

The girls are taught physical exercises to help them to overcome such challenges, and medical treatment is sometimes necessary after years of neglect. Among the conditions which primary school age street girls can suffer from is HIV. In the slums, girls are constantly at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, and many begin living on the streets after fleeing abusive home environments only to suffer more abuse there.

Another core component of the preliminary stay in Dorothea Rescue Centre is the individual and group counselling which provides the girls with the tools they need to cope with the trauma they have experienced in their young lives. After three months of care and informal education, depending on age and circumstances, girls can be reintegrated to their family homes or foster families – with the organisation continuing to provide financial support and assistance. Others remain in the Centre and begin to attend the adjacent school. Sixteen girls currently live in Dorothea Rescue Centre, with a larger number of former residents receiving ongoing support.

After a busy first year, Sr. Caroline is already laying the groundwork for future expansion which will allow her to reach and rescue many more children in future. Among the plans being considered is the construction of an additional dorm capable of housing fifty more girls, while money has already been raised to support the construction of a medical dispensary on site which can serve the local community. Whatever income is raised from the dispensary’s operation will be used to fund Dorothea’s activities and growth.

“We are hoping that we rescue one hundred girls in a year…. So far we have rescued forty girls … so when we put up another dormitory, we will be able to rescue more girls, and also to see the home and these girls become very successful, that they embrace education because that’s all that we can give them. They become hope and they live better lives than being on the street. Also, their mothers, we hope that they will come out of the streets, because these children can only grow better when they are with their parents, not at the Centre. So we hope that we are able to rescue their mothers, take them to another home for rehabilitation and then empower them to see if they can settle in life,” she said.

Her experience is mirrored by that of Sister Mary Killeen, an Irish Sister of Mercy who has spent forty-six years working among Nairobi’s poor. As director of the Mukuru Promotion Centre, she oversees four schools containing around 6,000 students, many of whom come from the Mukuru slum. She says that children coming to her schools for the first time are often visibly malnourished. Although this soon changes thanks to the hot meals which are provided within the Centre, children often bring some of their lunch away in their pockets. “One teacher found a boy taking home food in his pocket, and she said ‘why aren’t you eating your food?’ He said ‘because my mum and my brother are starving.’ When the teacher went there, she cried because she found the mother and the two children were indeed starving.  And this little boy was bringing home a little bit of food – that’s all the food they were getting,” Sister Mary said.

For Sister Caroline’s organisation, reintegration of street children to a safe and secure family environment is always the ideal outcome, but one which often requires much hard work in assisting the family in creating such an environment where it did not exist before.

Due to this, the number of rescued children actually being housed in the Kwetu and Dorothea residential centres is dwarfed by the number of former residents who are now being aided in their second-level or third-level education. In 2015, in partnership with others, the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret set up the Nyaatha Educational Endowment Fund in order to fund the education of children transitioning from rehabilitation centres. A sign of the success of these efforts is the fact that Kwetu Home of Peace is currently supporting 125 boys in day schools or boarding schools, and a growing number of alumni are now playing an active role in helping the next generation of street children to succeed.

Joseph Marka is a part time social worker in Kwetu who first passed through its doors in 2008, at a time when he was not actively participating in formal education. Since then, he has been supported in his schooling all the way up to university, having earned a Bachelor of Commerce at the Strathmore University, which is located close to Kwetu. Though he has escaped the grinding poverty of the slums, he has not left Kwetu behind him, as he is now intent on helping younger people. “Outside there,” he reflects, “I was not going to school, but now when I came here I was able to see that I was able to somehow realise my goals because I was able to access education.”

Other institutions in the educational or social sphere share the commitment of these nuns to building a better tomorrow. The authorities at Strathmore University, which is affiliated with Opus Dei, have made a particular effort to encourage young people from the slums to pursue education. Their Macheo (Swahili for ‘Sunrise’) programme assists 150 secondary school students from seven schools in disadvantaged parts of the city.

These students come to the college for classes and mentoring each Saturday, with some of the mentors being ex-Macheo participants from the same areas of Nairobi.  Every year, around ten to twelve Macheo students who have attained the high grades in the state exams apply to attend Strathmore, where support is available from the financial aid office and external donors.

In a country so populous, confronted by a seemingly intractable food crisis, it would be easy to despair. However, in places like Kwetu, Dorothea and Mukuru Promotion Centre, seeds are being planted which will surely reap a rich harvest.

Donations

In order to raise the €160,000 needed to build the entire Dorothea facility, Sister Caroline relied on a wide array of donors from across Kenya and further afield, while also constantly seeking ways to make the facility self-supporting, including the cultivation of food and the keeping of livestock on site. Ireland has been a significant source of funding for Sister Caroline’s work in Kwetu, Dorothea and elsewhere, with readers of Position Papers contributing around €20,000 already.

If you would like to make a donation to Dorothea Rescue Centre, you can do this through Position Papers, either through the donate button on our website (www.positionpapers.ie) by making mention of ‘Komarock’ or by sending a cheque to Position Papers.