Courage & contradictions

Small victories are so precious… remember Agnes, whose boxer-husband was brain-damaged and had gone crazy… with the very sick little toddler we sent to the clinic and the older girl who was out of school and seemed so listless and sad? Joy (or maybe more appropriately, hope) has come to that home. The mother came by yesterday with the paperwork from her daughter’s school, describing the fees required to re-enroll (I was so glad that the mother was responsible enough to follow-through on this request!). Makena spoke with the school early this morning and got the headmaster to agree to re-enroll the child at no charge as long as she could come to school in a school uniform and could buy her own books and supplies (sometimes you just need an advocate!). Makena then found a “well-wisher” to buy the uniform and supplies (I wouldn’t be surprised if the well-wisher isn’t Makena herself). The girl will stop by Monday to pick up her uniform – then she’s off to school! In addition, the mother came by again today- this time with the toddler. He indeed, did have pneumonia, got two shots… and today was smiling, squirming and breathing normally. These are such small steps in the overwhelming scope of the problems of Dandora… but for this one family, their world, at least for this week, is a better one.

I traveled with a new volunteer today (another young man who has finished high school but can’t afford college yet) to make home visits and he made an interesting comment. He talked about how the government doesn’t really recognize Dandora’s existence and therefore provides no services to the community (other than a token and some say, corrupt police presence) and he commented that there is just so much dirt, trash, depression, hopelessness here… he said that he wished he could give the people of Dandora just one day of happiness, free from this world they lived in. He himself lives in Dandora.

I learned more about the history of HOPE in Dandora today and continue to be impressed by the level of commitment the staff has to their work. In 2004/5, HOPE targeted Dandora as their next site for a HOPE program. They began by mapping the community, connecting with key people in the community and identifying strengths, weakness, and greatest needs. The group realized quickly that safety was one of the biggest concerns in the community and that HOPE could not move into the area until the security issues had been addressed. The primary issue was the significant presence of the Mungiki in Dandora– a political-religious, secret sect known for their gangs, extortion and gruesome, violent, criminal acts. How in the world do you deal with that kind of barrier, I asked the young man telling the story! He along with two other male HOPE staffers (the Mungiki distain women) spoke with community leaders to identify some of the Mungiki leaders. The three HOPE workers approached these Mungiki leaders and spent months building a friendship and getting their buy-in for the presence of a HOPE site. Over the course of a year, HOPE gained the Mungiki’s acceptance and some Mungiki even left the group during that time. Mungiki now often serve as security for special HOPE programs. These young men literally risked their lives to get the HOPE program started in Dandora. Who knew public health could be quite so dangerous!

I hit my goal of 50 surveys today, but will continue to add to that number as I am able… and today made more home visits. The stories are so similar … father/mother died, greatest needs: food, school fees, capital to start a business (Kiva, the microfinance group, seems to have pulled out of Kenya completely - not sure if they lost the supporting groups or if there were too many defaults). HOPE sometimes has funding to offer start-up business capital to families, especially those who have completed any of their vocational training programs, but is not into significant microfinancing and the funds they do get are limited.

I am getting used to walking into pitch black homes... what troubles me though are the smells – not the garbage smell, but the smell of the cooking fuel, paraffin, charcoal…sometimes homes even smell like gasoline – whichever, its often a heavy oily scent that permeates the air- and I again wonder about the long-term health effects of breathing such polluted air – especially for the children.

There are so many no-win decisions a person living in Dandora must make – do you cook outside your home (meaning you live in a more open and insecure area) or do you cook inside your “safe” home & get used to the side effects of the cooking fuels inside your home? Recently Dandora residents were told the eggs from their chickens contained high levels of certain toxins because the chickens ate from the dump; the residents were encouraged to feed their chickens grains… if a family cannot afford food for its children, it cannot afford to purchase food for chickens… so children continue to eat tainted eggs. So why don’t people flee this toxic area? Many (especially the children) have never seen beyond the five phases of Dandora to even understand that life can be different… plus they don’t even have the fare for a matatu…

Tomorrow HOPE is celebrating “The Day of the African Child” – games & races, poetry & drama, and the finale – a football (soccer) match! Over 1000 children are expected… hopefully they can forget Dandora for a day & just be children!