Consider the following facts:
- The world population is forecast to increase by approximately 1billion people between the years 2000 and 2015.
- 97% of this increase will be in the developing or third world.
- Currently, more than 1.2 billion people in the world are living on less than $1 a day. In fact, in 1999 the combined income of the 15 richest
people in the world was equal to the entire Gross Domestic Product of Sub-Saharan Africa. - Over 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water and 90% of urban sewage in the developing world is discharged
into rivers, lakes and coastal waterways further exacerbating the problem. - Today, more than 250 million children (ages 5-14) work as child laborers around the world and, an overwhelming, 30,000 children die
each day mainly from preventable causes. - Considered alone, food distribution is the least successful approach to breaking this cycle of poverty. Relief work and food distribution
are short-term solutions to a larger problem because poverty is not just the absence of sufficient funds or food. Poverty is the absence of
options. - What is needed is development work. Development work is long-term. It involves building relationships and finding long-lasting or
permanent solutions to ongoing problems or needs. - This is where we come in. We cannot change the entire developing world all at once but you and I can change the world one child at a
time.
| www.HeartsForTheWorld.org |
| POVERTY |
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The Kangemi District is one of the largest slum areas in Nairobi, Kenya.
What’s life like in a slum?
A slum is an urban settlement of makeshift houses with few or no basic services and crowded, unhealthy living conditions. Usually slums are
inhabited by people who can’t afford to live anywhere else. Because they are unplanned, slums usually have no basic services like running
water, sanitation and electricity. There are no toilets, garbage bins, street lights, postal deliveries, paved roads, parks, playgrounds, schools
or healthcare centers.
Houses are often made out of cardboard, tin, plastic, wood, mud or other materials. In a typical house, five or six people may live in one
room. There is no rubbish collection so rubbish piles up around the slums, or is burnt, causing smog and air pollution. Without sewers or
clean water and with people squashed together, disease spreads easily.
In Kangemi, 120,000 people live in tiny spaces, without sewage, and very little power or water. In the dry season, the paths are full of refuse.
In the rainy season they are full of mud, which often seeps indoors.
In a country with an annual per capita income of $371, Kangemi is one of the poorer areas with an unemployment rate over 40%. One in
seven people has HIV/AIDS.
People in Kangemi are generally neglected by the government and residents often have few of the rights of other citizens. These urban poor
now have to deal with another form of social exclusion. Language, education and infrastructure barriers continue to ensure that the poor in
cities such as Nairobi remain untouched by the information revolution. Because connectivity and informational capacity will determine wealth
and power in our time, the urban poor risk being even more marginalized and impoverished. Their poverty will not just be measured by their
income or assets but also by their ability to generate, process, receive and disseminate information.
However, slum dwellers can, and are fighting back to gain basic rights and opportunities. Sometimes all it takes is a few resources and skills
training.
Contact us to find out how you can help them fight back.
What’s life like in a slum?
A slum is an urban settlement of makeshift houses with few or no basic services and crowded, unhealthy living conditions. Usually slums are
inhabited by people who can’t afford to live anywhere else. Because they are unplanned, slums usually have no basic services like running
water, sanitation and electricity. There are no toilets, garbage bins, street lights, postal deliveries, paved roads, parks, playgrounds, schools
or healthcare centers.
Houses are often made out of cardboard, tin, plastic, wood, mud or other materials. In a typical house, five or six people may live in one
room. There is no rubbish collection so rubbish piles up around the slums, or is burnt, causing smog and air pollution. Without sewers or
clean water and with people squashed together, disease spreads easily.
In Kangemi, 120,000 people live in tiny spaces, without sewage, and very little power or water. In the dry season, the paths are full of refuse.
In the rainy season they are full of mud, which often seeps indoors.
In a country with an annual per capita income of $371, Kangemi is one of the poorer areas with an unemployment rate over 40%. One in
seven people has HIV/AIDS.
People in Kangemi are generally neglected by the government and residents often have few of the rights of other citizens. These urban poor
now have to deal with another form of social exclusion. Language, education and infrastructure barriers continue to ensure that the poor in
cities such as Nairobi remain untouched by the information revolution. Because connectivity and informational capacity will determine wealth
and power in our time, the urban poor risk being even more marginalized and impoverished. Their poverty will not just be measured by their
income or assets but also by their ability to generate, process, receive and disseminate information.
However, slum dwellers can, and are fighting back to gain basic rights and opportunities. Sometimes all it takes is a few resources and skills
training.
Contact us to find out how you can help them fight back.
| WHAT IS LIFE LIKE IN A SLUM? |