Trash for Cash in Kibera

August 5th, 2009 at 2:19 pm

I visited Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, on our last day in Kenya. An estimated 1,000,000 people share 1 square mile of land. That’s about the size of Central Park in New York City.

We began our visit to Kibera at Carolina for Kibera, an NGO started by a University of North Carolina student in 2001. We met with staff and peer educators to hear about the various programs they offer to the people of Kibera. All of the programs sounded incredible, but the two that struck me most were the Youth Sports Program and Trash for Cash.

After the initial meeting, a few of us piled into the back of a pickup truck and huddled close to a few of Kibera’s youth to ride through the slum. Every 50 feet we drove, we were greeted by a new group of young people yelling “Mzungu, how are you?” (White person, how are you?). Our Kenyan driving partners found this quite funny and it just got more adorable every time for us.

Upon arriving at the first location, we were met by a large group of young Kibera residents, rakes in hand. This group was participating in the Trash is Cash program, which creates jobs for several youth groups that collect trash, recycling and composting what they can. For a while, we just watched. Young men were standing on both sides of a channel full of dirty water and trash. In perfect sync, they raked the trash down the seemingly never-ending stream.

As we stood on a narrow ledge watching, a man would walk by with two five-gallon buckets full of human feces for disposal. This, alone, was enough to make us gag. We didn’t have too much time to sit and watch because within minutes we were given rakes and joined the boys in the work.

I’m having a very difficult time describing this experience. Somehow, I found it one of the most beautiful of the trip. After only 20 minutes of raking, my limbs were on fire and my back was sore. I had pieces of sewage and trash all over my body. This was one of the most extraordinary situations I’d ever been in, and that is what made it so beautiful. What seemed so extraordinary and unbelievable to me was that this was the norm for these boys. They don’t know a world where you take your trash out every Sunday and wake up to an empty bin. Immersing myself in their world, only for 20 minutes, was powerful and emotional.

I would give anything to be back in Kibera right now, alongside young men who were never given the option of luxury. We see this scene as a display of incredible work ethic and resiliency — but to them, this is life.

-Stephanie Parrish