Kibera & Our Story
Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and the second largest in the world. It is home to over one million people and extends across 1.5 square miles - roughly the size of New York City's Central Park.
Kibera makes up only five percent of the land in Nairobi while housing sixty percent of the population. Overcrowding alone has led to high levels of tuberculosis, respiratory infections, whooping cough, malaria, urban dengue and yellow fever.
The slums of Kibera are among the worst living conditions in the entire world. The area lacks sufficient running water, sewage systems, trash collection, health care services, quality public education, adequate housing, roads, and safety. Kibera, like many urban slums throughout the world, has been declared an "illegal settlement" by their government. Such a declaration removes all formal recognition of the slum, allowing the government to abandon any responsibility over the area. Such negligence is a large factor behind the devastating living conditions within the slums.
Additionally, gender inequalities are a growing problem in Kenya, especially in Kibera. Women are rarely afforded the same opportunities as men. One of the most significant examples of the gender disparity is in the failure to provide access to secondary education. Women are simply not given equal opportunities in attending. Two individuals, Abdul Kassim and Salim Sebit, have dedicated their lives to alleviating this problem.
Abdul and Salim grew up in, and currently work in Kibera and are extremely motivated to combat the persistent gender inequalities. In 2002, they started a soccer team for girls called, Girls' Soccer in Kibera (GSK). Their hope was to foster a supportive community, providing emotional and mental support for young women of Kibera by establishing a soccer program. The girls were fast learners when it came to the game of soccer, and soon they were competing against boys' teams from the community. Soccer was serving as a middle ground for both genders; it provided a space for acceptance and encouragement, and it was Abdul's and Salim's hope that this would spread across other aspects of Kenyan society.
The soccer program was a success. However, the looming dangers of slum life persisted as the young women still fell victim to the worst kinds of human atrocities. Rape, forced prostitution, disease, and drugs are all a reality in Kibera for women. Indeed, it was the unyielding injustice of these conditions, which led Abdul and Salim to the conclusion that soccer alone was not enough. If systemic change was what they wanted to see happen, they needed to establish a school.
Neither Abdul nor Salim were in a position to finance such an ambitious plan. Selflessly, Salim offered his own house to serve as the school, and moved in with Abdul in order to keep their project moving. In the meantime, Abdul was able to reach out to friends for financial support and gathered enough funding to purchase tables, chairs, and textbooks for the school. Finally, in 2006, the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy was established and began supporting their first class consisting of eleven girls.
Today, KGSA is composed of fourteen volunteer teachers and over 130 students, and it continues to grow. It is our hope, that through providing academics - in and outside of the classroom, artistic and athletic opportunities, KGSA can inspire the young women of Kibera to become advocates for a movement of change within their own communities, and for Kenya as a whole. top
For more information on how you can help, visit the Get Involved page.
Below is a list of our partners, who include:
~ Seeds for Hope www.seedsforhope.org
~ Padem France www.padem.org
~ Vision Africa www.visionafrica.org
~ Sporting Chance International www.sportingchanceinternational.org.uk/index.html
~ Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) www.irinnews.org
~ Minnesota Studies in International Development (MSID) www.umabroad.umn.edu/programs/AFRICA/msidKenya/index.htm
~ Stimulus Projects www.stimulusprojects.org
~ American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Kenya Chapter www.acck.org/index.php
~ VIAFRICA www.viafrica.org
~ Center for Popular Economics www.populareconomics.org
~ BELA Vegetarian Restaurant - 68 Masonic St, Northampton MA 01060
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