Mathare
Nairobi hosts some of the largest slums in Africa and in the world. Of the city’s current population of 2.75 million people, almost 60% live in slums. These people are huddled into 5% of the total residential area of Nairobi, with as many as 500 people living on just one acre of land. Mathare is the second largest slum in Kenya, with an estimated population of between 600,000 – 800,000; “where people eke out a living in life threatening conditions, where the most basic needs are not met for the majority, and where population growth rates are the highest in Africa. Their poverty is compounded by many factors such as domestic violence, crime, drugs and alcoholism, to name a few” (Anna Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, and Executive Director, UN-HABITAT).
Prospective scholarship recipients are students living in Mathare Valley Slum who have attended private, government, or non-formal primary school in the slum and who have completed Standard 8 with the minimum required score for high school in their final exams.
The Canada-Mathare Education Trust is focusing on Mathare Valley Slum because it is very large – over 600,000 people and the majority of the population are children. There are very few NGOs and other aid organizations currently working there, as most work in Kibera, Kenya’s biggest slum. The scholarships will be advertised to and only open to students from Mathare (children living and/or attending school in Mathare).
In Mathare, the second largest slum in Kenya, the poverty level is extremely high and most peoples’ basic needs are not met. Very few students who qualify for high school after their Standard 8 exams can afford to attend. If they aren’t attending school, many are forced to find work in order to support themselves and their families. As most are too young and unskilled to gain lawful employment, their only options often become early marriage, prostitution, drug and alcohol trafficking, and other types of crime.
Mathare community members have identified secondary school scholarships as one of the most effective ways to break this cycle and to improve education within the slum, and Kenya as a whole. Students enrolled in secondary boarding school are able to continue their studies outside the slum, in a rural environment much more conducive to learning. They are kept safe and not forced to grow up before their time. From here they may have an opportunity to continue their education even further, in a post-secondary institution. They will then have a greater opportunity to become functioning members of the Kenyan workforce and active members of Kenyan society, with more complete academic knowledge, higher self-esteem and greater awareness of reproductive health and human rights. The few students from Mathare who have attended secondary school often return to the slum to work, using their education to help improve the situation for the more than 600,000 people living there. Many become teachers, as they recognize and understand the value and role of education in improving Kenyans lives.
