What Everybody Ought to Know About Jane and Carroll in Kibera



Posted: Wednesday, June 10, 2009

by Richard Grabowski
IADDIC Shelters

Kibera , is a very difficult place to live and most days are focused on survival. Like many places, the citizens wake in the morning and begin their day. Here though, life is anything but ordinary. Over the next several days we will take you on a 5 part video journey into one of the most difficult places to live on earth to meet several people living in inadequate shelter , lacking medical resources, fighting back hunger, and in general, barely eking out an existence. These people, like you and me, have hopes and dreams of a future but are faced with overwhelming obstacles.

Although providing simple shelter is our focus at both "Shelter the World" and IADDIC Shelters, they are not in and of themselves the solution to these peoples problems but they do offer some surprising opportunities. We believe that shelter is just one component of a very complex problem and where to start is not easily understood. But one thing for sure, if nothing is done to radically change the overall conditions associated with inadequate shelter, then countless billions of people will be subject to this extreme deprivation for their entire life. You see, Kibera is filled with many problems including a lack of adequate shelter. It is just one place; for slums are fast becoming the dominant settlement type in the world.

Beyond the inadequacy of the shelter these people live in, the days are filled with challenges most of us can only imagine and true comprehension is limited only by our decision to deepen our awareness. Going to a place like Kibera is not something most people would ever consider doing. As a matter of fact, unless you are going to help someone who lives there, there really is no rational reason to go. The only attraction you will find there are the people themselves. There are no amusement parks, no beaches, and no historic architecture to capture on your digital devices. And there are over one million of them living in this one place. Multiply this across the many slums that exist in the world and the number skyrockets into the billions.

Because there is no reason to go there many of us reading this simply can not comprehend the magnitude of the problems. As such we are providing this video series, produced by The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to take you deep into Kibera so that you can experience first hand what life there is like.

Since you are seeing this information on the internet, I can confidently say the odds are high that you do not live in Kibera, nor do you know what it looks like from the inside. A place where shelter is inadequate, food is scarce, health care in non-existent, and hope is about the only thing of value. I want to warn you though; the content presented here is shocking.

Shocking because it shows real people living in very desperate conditions, and to be honest, desperate almost seems too inadequate a word to truly depict the reality.

If you do nothing else about what you see here, please do two things: tell a friend of yours what you learned. Tell them about a social enterprise called IADDIC Shelters and the work we are doing. Then visit the IADDIC Shelters website and see what we are using as a shelter solution.

Part 1: Jane and Carroll

In this First of this 5 part series we introduce you to Jane, a mother of seven when you meet her, is giving birth to her most recent and eighth child. She will tell us what it is like to live in a place like Kibera and what it is like to have no food to feed her children. The miracle of birth that you will be a partner of is most telling of a life of hardship. You will also meet Carroll who fairs no better; with 3 children, no husband and no permanent job her prospects are life and death, starvation versus something to eat.

To see the video and learn more about the condition of houselessness and inadequate shelter, please visit http://www.iaddicshelters.net

Richard Grabowski is founder of Shelter The World and has dedicated his life to prividing solution for those 1.4 people living in inadequate housing. To learn more about the work we are doing, please visit sheltertheworld.net or join our cause on Facebook.

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Nenita Wells
 2 years 325 days ago.
299 fans.
Hi Richard.
 
Thank you for writing this article. Kibera could be any city or place in the U.S. What are our government doing about this problem? My prayers are with them.
 
Best regards,
 
Nenita
» left by Richard Grabowski 2 years 323 days ago.

Hi Nenita,

 

Fortunately, governments today do more than they ever had before.  Unfortunately, the problem is very large and it is going to take some time to solve these problems.  We are committed to doing what we can and will continue as long as we can.  Thank you for reading and commenting on the article.

 

Blessings,

 

Rich

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