Camillian Task Force – SOS DRS

Kibera Slum in Nairobi, Kenya – AIDS, CTF-SOS DRS Kenya and Sister Monica Mukui, ASN

Posted on December 1, 2008. Filed under: 2009-05 Slum, Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya), All Posts, Assumption Sisters of Nairobi, CTF - A Community, CTF Network, CTF-SOS DRS Kenya, CTF-USA (SOS DRS), English |

Fr. Scott Binet

I first went to Nairobi, Kenya in June 2004. I was there to sensitize my fellow Camillians in East Africa to the existence of the CTF. I was also on my way to Uganda and then Sudan to do some work in refugee camps.

While in Nairobi Fr. Paolo Guarise, MI (the Kenyan Delegate at the time) gave me “a tour” of Kibera Slum – an experience I will never forget. I had never seen such horrible living conditions: sewage strewn through the streets;  children with tattered clothing and no shoes who had obviously not bathed in some time; a terrible stench, and mud and more mud. It had just rained and Kibera – always a man-made disaster – had just become a natural disaster as well.

Kibera made such an impression on me that I decided to go back a second time during my visit in Nairobi. It was then that I first met Fr. John Mosoti, MI – the director of the Servants of the Sick Training Center (Camillian pastoral center) - and Sr. Monika Mukui, a nurse by profession and a member of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi by vocation.

Sr. Monica was working at St. Mary’s Hospital in Nairobi, a magnificent facility that sits on the edge of Kibera Slum and is run by the Maryknoll Fathers and the Assumption Sisters. Sr. Monica and I talked at length during which time I shared the vision I had of one day establishing a Camillian Task Force presence in the slum of Kibera. Sr. Monica indicated that she was eager to be a part of that vision. As I walked through the slum for the last time I knew that I would be back. I had to be patient though. And so did Sr. Monica.

I returned to Nairobi in April 2009 and soon after my arrival arranged for a meet with Fr. John Mosoti, MI Theresia Sinaga and Sr. Monica. Sister and I had been communicating via e-mail for a time, and it was good to see her again. Our conversation soon turned to how we might collaborate in helping the people of Kibera. Sr. Monica told me that she was studying for an MA in Public Health and that her thesis would be related to a study of the prevalence of HIV in Kibera and associated risk factors. I was immediately intrigued and offered my support – professional and financial.

The AIDS pandemic marches on in Kenya and elsewhere despite significant progress in providing retroviral medications and some promising vaccines. The Camillians are at the forefront of providing primarily pastoral support but also some medical care for HIV-infected people in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Brazil.

The AIDS pandemic is one that affects in a particular way those who are poor and live in overcrowded situations like slums and refugee camps. Thus the Camillian Task Force whose mission is to provide medical, pastoral, and humanitarian assistance in man-made and natural disasters also serves those with HIV/AIDS. CTF-SOS DRS Kenya’s work in Kibera is an example of this. Collaborating with Sr. Monika’s work in Kibera and her religious congregation could be  an excellent expression of the mission as well.

So on this day, December 1, when we celebrate the World Day of AIDS, I would like to post the following background information about Kibera. It was provided in large part by Sr. Monika in light of her thesis and our planned collaboration. It will help you as a reader and an interested supporter to better understand the context of the mission of CTF-SOS DRS in Kenya.

By Sr. Monica Muklui, ASN

Kibera Slum – Informal Settlement (Nairobi – Kenya)

Kibera is the largest slum in Kenya, which  lies astride the equator on the eastern coast of Africa and covers an area of 583,000 sq. km (225,000 sq. miles). The country is bordered on the north by Sudan and Ethiopia; on the east by Somalia; on the southeast by the Indian Ocean; on the southwest by Tanzania; and on the west by Lake Victoria and Uganda (see image below).

Kibera is known as the second largest slum in Africa. It is located in the Kibera division of the western district of Nairobi {Google Map}

According to the Nairobi City Council, the Kibera informal settlement covers an area of 5.5 kilometers squared (km²). It is southwest of the city center of Nairobi.

Facts about Kibera

i) The Kibera slums are very densely populated and resources are wanting. The Central Bureau of Statistics census in 1999 confirmed that Kibera is the most populated informal settlement in East Africa. It houses more than one quarter of Nairobi’s population. The population density is 68,030 persons per km². This makes it one of the most densely populated slums in Kenya. Recent estimates state the population to be nearly 1 million inhabitants.

ii)   Kibera is the largest slum in East Africa and the second largest in Africa. Kibera hosts many people who are poor. Many of them are also sick (TB victims, etc.), uneducated and unemployed. UNAIDS/WHO (July 2007) estimates that 58.3% of the 34,256 Kenyans are living on  less than US $2 per day.

iii) The census of the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1999) confirmed that the majority of Nairobi’s urban population (1.9 million) lives in the vast shanty settlements that surround the central business district. The number of people and the corresponding percentage seem to have increased leading to even great er crowding (figure 3).

Overcrowding and high population density in Kibera is also described by Alioune Badiane, the director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) regional office for Africa and the Arab States who points out that:

“Kibera is said to be Africa’s largest slum. Kibera has 3,000 persons per hectare; I do not see any other place in the world that has such a density. Kibera is roughly 2.5 kilometres squared with an estimated population of 1 million people” (UN-HABITAT Report, 2007)

POVERTY AND HIV/AIDS

It is widely accepted that HIV/AIDS has a major economic and social impact on individuals, families, communities, and society as whole. In Kenya, as in other countries in sub – Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS threatens personal and  national well-being by negatively affecting health, lifespan, the productive capacity of individuals; and critically, by severely constraining the accumulation of human capital and its transfer between generations. Research across many severely affected and low-income countries clearly demonstrates that HIV/AIDS is the most serious impediment to economic growth and development in such countries. (This is a real disaster!). Consequently, the epidemic’s dynamics need to be explored in human development terms.

OTHER HEALTH CONCERNS IN KIBERA

The population of Kibera lacks food, water, fuel and access to health care, which are all risk factors for disease.

Risk Factors for the Increased Communicable Disease Burden

1. Due to an interruption in the access to safe water and a lack of sanitation facilities, the majority of the people in Kibera are at immediate and high risk of being affected by outbreaks of water-borne and food-borne diseases due to reduced access to clean water and a lack of sanitation systems. These include diseases like cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and amoebiasis (entamoeba hystolytica) and dysentery (shigella dysenteriae type 1).

2. Due to malnutrition and the ease with which communicable diseases are transmitted, one significant public heath concern is the well-being of infants and children in Kibera.  Malnutrition compromises natural immunity leading to more frequent severe and prolonged episodes of infections. Severe malnutrition often masks symptoms and signs of communicable diseases making prompt clinical diagnosis and early treatment more difficult.

3. Due to poor access to health services and the deterioration of security and the degradation of the health infrastructure – the health of the population of Kibera is compromised on a routine basis and in particular at times of crisis [e.g. the presidential elections of 2008] .

4. The lack of security within Kibera can leave women and children vulnerable to rape and sexual violence. Poverty and single motherhood can then lead to women to commercial sex work and to increase their risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Much more can be said about Kibera. I believe much can and should be done to change the situation as well.

Sr. Monika Muklui, ASN

Make a Comment

4 Responses to “Kibera Slum in Nairobi, Kenya – AIDS, CTF-SOS DRS Kenya and Sister Monica Mukui, ASN”

Comments RSS Feed

Where's The Comment Form?