From a Nairobi Slum to a Future of Promise

By Jeannine Cinco
CRS Volunteer, Kenya

Ann and I were walking through the streets of Korococho, a Nairobi, Kenya slum. I had gone there for the weekend with a friend and as I was walking down the street, I met Ann, a former student of the Education Center, where I serve as a Volunteer.

Korococho is next to a large Nairobi landfill called the "Dumping Site." It is a smaller slum, but the most dangerous slum in Nairobi.

Little girls and boys running everywhere without shoes. The children are beautiful, with their raggedy clothes, round, chubby cheeks, and shining brown eyes. Some ran out and grabbed my hand as Ann and I walked down a dirt road bordered by houses made of tin.

"Were you this cute when you were little?" I asked Ann.

"Yes, of course! And we were also being raped by the men." Ann replied.

She told me this like it was just a simple fact of life. She went on to explain that as a female in the slums, it is difficult to make it to maturity without being taken advantage of by men.

There was one little girl, about five or six years old, who was sitting among a group of men on one man's lap. I thought it was her father. But according to Ann, who had lived in Korococho all her life until she came to our Education Center, that man was probably not the girl's dad.

If there is a group of men gathered, women will find another way to pass so the men do not see them. For if the group of men see the woman, they are likely to rape her for just walking down the street. Where there is extreme poverty, like in the slums, the little children and women are taken advantage of even more than in other places.

Ann informed me that she could not remember the first time she was raped. She was too young when it first happened to remember. Ann knows what happens to these sweet little girls and knows it well. She has a four-year-old son who is a product of rape.

Ann graduated from our Education Center last year and now has a job making uniforms with some other graduates.

The house where Ann lives and works does not allow children, so her son lives in Korococho with a guardian, who does not treat him well, but is willing to feed and keep him.

I asked her if she would raise her son to respect women more than these men and if she would raise him to be different. She replied that she would try but she knows that when he grows up, if he is still living in the slums, he will hang out with the boys of the area who will influence him to do things that are contrary to what she has taught him.

She wants to get her son into a nursery school in the town where she is working, out of the slums, but school is so expensive that for now he has to stay in Korococho. She is saving so that maybe next year he can move out of the slums and they can live together, and she can send him to a good school.

There are so many things about this story that strike me.

First, hearing parts of her story saddens me. Even today, in a modern city where people are fighting for human rights, it is striking that such atrocities still happen. It is very easy to visit Nairobi and never see or hear of this part of the city. People just turn a blind eye.

Second, Ann was so open to talk about the happenings in the slums and willing to talk about the hardships in her life. Having known her for a while, I would never have guessed that she came from such a rough and troubled area and that she had been through such hardships. She is a friendly, outgoing young woman, who is hard working and loves life.

I am amazed by how strong and resilient people can be, especially African women.

Finally, it makes me realize that the education we are giving the girls at the Education Center, with the help of Catholic Relief Services, is making a difference. Ann now has a job, is making money and looking to a future that is not in the slums. She wants her son to have something better and now has the tools to make this dream a reality.

Ann is a sign of hope.