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Slum Projects
The two largest slums in Nairobi are Kibera and Mathare, with a combined population of three million people. Thousands more live in the slums of Kawangware and Mukuru and these figures can be used to paint a very bleak picture of life in Nairobi.
However, even in Mathare, one of the biggest slums, there is an exciting and already very successful slum project aimed at youth. The Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) is the largest self-help youth sports and community service organisation in Africa. It is a self-help project, which builds on the desire to play sport. What might sound outrageous to children here in Britain is that if you want to play in a Mathare team organised by MYSA you have to be prepared to help clean up the slum.
MYSA has also helped Alive and Kicking develop our HIV/AIDS awareness posters and when we embark upon our HIV/AIDS awareness road shows, we usually take a team of MYSA animators. So we have developed a great partnership.
MYSA now buy Alive and Kicking balls to use in their youth sports programme.
To find out more about MYSA visit www.mysakenya.org
We also send donated balls to another group working on youth empowerment in Kawangware under a Msingi Bora (Good Foundation) initiative supported by Plan International.
Under the Msingi Bora initiative children have become very aware of the risks of HIV/AIDS and prevention activities, as well as learning to actively participate in programmes designed on their behalf.
Plan's work is better understood by visiting their website www.plan-international.org
