Slum Survivors Documentary

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The United Nations has a news agency called IRIN focusing on humanitarian issues. IRIN has produced a remarkably insightful documentary on Kibera. The video reveals the good, bad, and ugly about Kibera by profiling various residents of the slum.

I hope that if you are interested in Tenderfeet, you will watch the whole 40-minute video, it really is an absolute must in fully understanding the challenges of the school.

In the film, you will hear references to the Kenyan currency of shillings. Note that 100 shillings is about $1.30.

You will see a mother named Carol who washes clothes for a living. In fact, just like Carol, most of the Tenderfeet guardians also wash clothes to earn what little they have. Almost all the guardians are widows or their husbands have abandoned the family.

The going rate for washing clothes in Kibera is 200 shillings -- it is hard work that can take hours. One is considered lucky if one can find 2 or 3 jobs washing clothes in a week and substantial time is spent going door to door asking for work. Doing the math, this shows that the typical earnings are around $30 per month.

Salaried permanent jobs are almost unheard of for slum residents. They are highly sought after, but finding these kind of jobs is virtually impossible.

Keep in mind that the average rent in Kibera is $10 to $15 per month, and school fees can be $5 or more per child per month. This leaves very little for food, clothing, or medical care. Tenderfeet fills the gap for these families, providing free education, a feeding program, and allowing mothers to search for work without leaving children at home unattended.

The issues dealt with in the documentary are handled in an honest and unflinching way. Please be warned that many of the topics are difficult to cope with and may be hard to watch.

IRIN - Slum Survivors

If there are any problems watching the dailymotion version embedded above, you can watch it in five parts through Youtube:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
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