The Girls of Kibera Girls Centre

The girls of Kibera Girls Centre, trying to beat the odds

Being poor and female in a developing country is no picnic. And Kenya is no exception.  

The statistics on women in Kenya are sobering. Average life expectancy is only 50 years, and dropping due to high HIV/AIDS rates. For poor women, there is little or no access to health services, less chance of a secondary school education, and no chance of inheriting property. Forced child marriage, female genital mutilation, and exposure to violence or sexual abuse are all far higher than you want to know.  

For those living in the slums of Nairobi, the situation is even worse.

Main road on the edge of Kibera, littered with trash and flying toilets

Kibera is Nairobi’s largest slum, and said to be one of the biggest in Africa. It is densely populated (estimates from half to one million people) and jammed with small huts made of tin, wood, or anything else people can scrape together. Because it is not formally recognized by the government, there are no services: no water, sanitation, schools, electricity, health facilities, police, trash pickup, paved roads, etc.  Human sewage runs in ruts. There are huge piles of trash, including “flying toilets,” which is a term for plastic bags filled with feces and discarded.

Children make up a large proportion of Kibera's population, but face a deck stacked against them

According to the Kibera Law Centre, average life expectancy in Kibera is only 30 years. Violence is rampant, 66% of girls routinely trade sex for food (some starting as early as age 6), and only 8% of girls go to school.

It’s a grim picture.

Yet, when I visited the Kibera Girls Centre recently, I caught a glimpse of the strength of human resilience and ingenuity.

Note: I did not go into the vast network of dank alleys. I was with a group led by the Kenya Girl Guides Association (the Kenya Girl Scouts), which manages the Kibera Girls Centre. We were packed in one car and stuck to the bustling main roads on the edge of Kibera, which team with commerce and activity.

The Kibera Girls Centre is located on the edge of Kibera, on land lent to them by the national railroad. The only permanent structure is the latrine/showers building made of bricks. The rest of the buildings are made of metal sheeting and sort of resemble circus tents. They include a kitchen, storage house, classrooms, office, library, computer center, and sewing workshops. There is a small flower garden, named for one of the volunteers/benefactors of the school, and a vegetable patch, which was fairly barren the day we visited.

The small, green gardens, with flowering trees and bushes are a haven from the violence and filth of the slum

The purpose of the centre is to offer schooling and vocational training to girls from Kibera between the ages of 15 and 25 years. They have a program called “learn and earn” which helps the girls to pass school exams and pick up a vocational skill/job. The curriculum also addresses issues such as health, violence prevention, empowerment, and character development.

Learning and earning, by the end of their second year, these girls will have made enough to buy their sewing machines

In their first year of study, the girls are exposed to different vocational training possibilities, ranging from sewing to cooking, environmental studies, craftsmaking, and computer skills.  In their second year, they are pushed to engage in one of those vocations. The school has an on-site catering business and an on-site sewing business that makes, among other things, uniforms for the different ages of Girl Guides (daisies, brownies, juniors, seniors, etc.). Those who choose sewing are set up to purchase their machine by the end of the second year of training.

The funding for the school comes from a wide mix of sources – many attracted through different foreign embassy contacts, groups like the rotary club, and other NGOs. They also have many benefactors, who organize annual fundraisers.

On Saturdays, the centre opens its doors to the younger siblings of the girl students, offering them lunch and activities.

The Kibera Girls Centre is an inspiring place. It sits as a haven of peace and potential for girls living in what would seem to be a hopeless situation. But the most striking part of the visit is the girls themselves. They live in conditions and face challenges most of us cannot even imagine. Yet they are lively and lovely. They are shy but proud.

We were welcomed with songs and dancing, which brought out the life and smiles in this group of girls

We were offered home-baked goods and presented with a welcome dance performance. Accompanied only by a drum, the girls sang and moved, closing their eyes and flowing with the beat.  Clapping we moved with them and were moved by them. And somewhere, among the metal buildings and budding flowers there was something resembling hope – not for miracles, but for beating some of the odds and bettering some of the lives of the girls of Kibera Centre for Girls.