Carolina for Kibera

At our last meeting the speaker was Neha Singh, in addition to being a graduate student in the school of Public Health here at UNC she is involved in Carolina for Kibera and spent last summer living in Naroibi and working in Kibera. She described to the Weiss fellers the living conditions of those individuals in Kibera. Kibera is one of the largest slums in the world, there's no electricity (except for that stolen from the golf course next door) and residents are literally living on top of garbage with open sewer lines in the "streets".

The reason that the slum occurred is that there are housing rules in Nariobi which has created rents that many of the poor cannot afford. Since technically it's illegal to live in Kibera the rents are much cheaper, and poor people can afford to live there. Due to the poor living conditions etc there's violence in Kibera, some of which is amongst the different ethnic groups, crime and just generally unsafe living conditions.

The new president is making some attempt to deal with the situtaion by building apartments right next to Kibera, but because it's sanctioned housing the rents will be too high, and they aren't building nearly enough housing for all of the residents of Kibera.

She also described some of what CFK does in Kibera, including unclogging sewer lines, working in clinics, supporting community developments etc.

From weisser Lindsey comes this film