Springing Up Like Mushrooms: Schools in Kibera Slum

Our friends from CENTRUM DIALOG o.p.s. brought back a wealth of impressions from their latest trip to Kenya. Do you know how schools in a slum actually work? How children living in poverty spend their time, or how the education system differs from what we know? If you’re intrigued by stories of schools built from corrugated iron with just two classrooms, read on.

Sometimes all it took was turning a corner, squeezing into the narrowest alleyway, or simply looking a bit more carefully — and there it was: a school! Over the past few years, schools in Kibera have been springing up like mushrooms after rain: they’re small and they’re everywhere. And that’s a wonderful thing.

You may have already heard of Kibera — Kenya’s largest slum, which has been expanding on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi for nearly 90 years. Around one million people live here. That wouldn’t be such a problem if they weren’t all crammed into just 2.5 square kilometres. With numbers like these, it’s obvious that a lot of things simply don’t work — sewage, waste collection, supply chains, you name it. But there are also plenty of things that work brilliantly.

The Most Entrepreneurial Place on Earth

Most residents of Kibera earn no more than one dollar a day. Yet they haven’t given up — they’re constantly finding ways to make a living. In a place where a European might feel utterly helpless, a Kibera local will come up with something ingenious. Beyond the small shops that seem to pop up along every path selling just about anything you can imagine, women braid hair, young men burn CDs, groups of volunteers collect rubbish for a small fee and then turn the recyclable bits into jewellery. But that’s only a modest glimpse of the activities that simply “happen” in Kibera. The locals’ entrepreneurial spirit caught the attention of The Economist, which in 2012 dubbed Kibera “the most entrepreneurial place on the planet.”

A School as a Space, a School as a Future

During my wanderings through Kibera, though, something else captivated me far more than the local business spirit. While back home we sometimes overcomplicate education — building enormous buildings with dozens of classrooms, colossal playgrounds, and a mountain of regulations — in Kibera, they don’t mess about. They know that if a child isn’t in school, they’ll be on the streets of the slum, where nothing good awaits them. So schools spring up like mushrooms after rain — they’re not big, often just one or two classrooms squeezed under a corrugated iron roof. They almost never have a playground — space is one of the most precious commodities in Kibera. And even if you might argue that a two-classroom school can hardly be called a school, the reality tells a very different story.

250 Against 3

In all of Kibera, there are only three state schools, which don’t come anywhere close to meeting the educational needs of the area. And while the government seems largely indifferent to the future of children in the slum, parents and local community workers certainly are not. Over the past few years, with the help of communities and small grants, around 250 private schools and nurseries have been established in Kibera. Their primary goal is to keep children spending as much time as possible in organised activities. Some of the teaching happens in the traditional way — at desks with books — but children also often learn through singing, reciting nursery rhymes, or playing games. Thanks to this network of small schools and nurseries, Kibera is achieving what seems impossible at first glance: giving children a future.

Fascinated

With our coordinator Adado, we’d sometimes just turn a corner, duck into the narrowest alleyway, or simply look a little more carefully — and there it was: a school! They were on every corner, filled with the sound of children’s laughter and chatter. I realised how beautiful it is to do things because you genuinely believe they’re the right thing to do, rather than because the law demands it. Yet despite the enormous effort, Kibera is far from winning the battle. There are still plenty of children who simply cannot afford an education, even though the fees seem minimal.

Kibera Utu Centre

was founded thanks to local volunteers and a partnership with Centrum Dialog, with the initial goal of giving socially and economically disadvantaged children a chance at education. This is why more than a third of the children pay no school fees at all, and another third pays less than half the standard tuition. The school also began providing children with up to three free meals a day, ensuring they receive a balanced and healthy diet. In the few years since it opened, Kibera Utu Academy has become one of the most sought-after schools in the area despite significant limitations. However, the limited number of classrooms forces the founders to turn down admission requests and maintain a steady number of pupils — at least until they have sufficient resources to expand.

Expanding the school is currently the biggest challenge for its founders. Near the building, there is a house for sale that would provide ideal teaching space. Unfortunately, the asking price remains beyond the financial reach of our Kenyan friends — it has been set at approximately 50,000 euros. We’ve therefore decided to support our friends and try to raise funds in Europe.

You can help with this bold plan too. You’ll find information about the project here.