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Kibera is a
frightening world of poverty, disease, and lawlessness. Here are some
basic facts about the slums:
......nearly 1
million people live in the slums
......100,000 Orphans
......30 %
infected with HIV
......no
running water, garbage disposal, or electricity
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Kibera is
an 'informal housing' district that is not officially recognized by
the Kenyan government. |
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Many of the
people who move from villages to towns live in the worst areas of
cities - in slums, where they are forced to stay in cheap, self-made
houses of mud and corrugated iron sheets. Many others are homeless
and have to survive without basic facilities such as water or
toilets. In Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, there is only one
toilet for every 150 inhabitants. |
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Children
whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS suffer the trauma of
witnessing sickness and death in addition to the challenges of living
without parental support and guidance. Often these children are
stigmatized, may suffer delayed emotional development, and have less
educational opportunities. AIDS orphans are likely to be poorer and
less healthy than their peers. Almost 14million children worldwide
are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. Of these, 11 million AIDS orphans live
in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
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In Kenya, where
56 per cent of the population live on less than US$2 a day.
Kenya is one of
the African countries with the highest prevalence of HIV: 13% and
with 2.5 million people being HIV positive. About 1.5 million people
have died of AIDS since the disease was discovered in the country in
1984, and over 700 people continue to die of AIDS everyday. By this
year it is estimated that1.5 million children will have been orphaned
by HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS
worsened by poverty has emerged as the largest cause of community
problems affecting all sectors, for example the health sector where
you find that half of the medical wards in Kenya are filled by HIV/AIDS
patients, the condition being worsened by lack of access to anti-retroviral
drugs which are very expensive for the poor majority.
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Children
orphaned by HIV/AIDS are unable to continue with their education and
you may find that some Kenyan households are being headed by children
as young as 10-12 years old. The problem has also led to entire
family structure falling apart, leaving orphans homeless on the
streets, themselves vulnerable to HIV infection. |
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Statistics
say that in 5 years there will be 50 million orphans as a result of
the AIDS pandemic |
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Nairobi
has more than 2.4 million people living in the city (3 million live
in the metropolitan area). One million or more are packed into
Kibera, living 500 per acre.
There is no
running water, electricity or proper sanitation or even privacy
anywhere in these slums. There is virtually no daylight either, as
the alleys between the mud huts are only two feet wide, with a trench
down the middle. |
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Piped water and
flush toilets are a dream for most people in Kibera. Trenches clogged
with steaming sewage are a common sight.
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Kibera, a
ramshackle settlement of tin-roof shacks, cobbled together with mud,
scrap metal and cardboard.
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