Today we visited the Kibera Slum which is the largest slum in Africa and the second largest in the world. There are an estimated 1.2 million people that live there. We had a man named James give us a tour of part of the slum. James is 25 years old and has spent his whole life living in Kibera. Around 10 years ago James noticed that a lot of the kids in the slum were becoming street kids- going down the wrong path towards drugs and crime. He decided to create a soccer team for these boys. What started out as just 2 boys soon grew and grew and now he has around 60 kids from the slum that he trains. Some of his players have gotten sponsored so they can go to college, some have been recruited to play at the national level and even travel to other countries. He has watched so many of his players grow and change to a better path. James is currently being sponsored by a volunteer who is paying for him to attend college for social work. His dream is to open up his own orphanage someday. James is one of the nicest and most genuine people I have met in Kenya. He took us into his home in the slum and pulled out a photo album. He went over every picture in the album telling us about his family and the kids he coaches in the pictures. Each photo he showed us he beamed with pride and happiness. It’s amazing that something as simple as a photograph can bring such joy to the people here who have nothing. It makes me sad to think that James has never experienced much life outside of this massive, unsafe, and dirty slum but just like most Kenyans, he seems completely content and happy with his life just the way it is!
Trash piles like this are a normal sight in Kibera
2 kids died in this spot last week. They got electrocuted playing in the water.
Slum river filled with trash, feces, mud, etc.
Not even half of the slum
James
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