Voter registration process in Kibera.

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Lee Ibrahim

As Hon. Mwai Kibaki the President of the Republic of Kenya was launching the Voter registration at the KICC, the voter registration in Kibera and the rest of the country had kicked off. Particularly for Kibera, Map Kibera Trust had resolved to cover and monitor events before, during and after the elections. Voter registration therefore is such an event.

For this voter registration exercise the 3 Map Kibera trust programs were out in the field to cover/get a feel of the process.  The Voice of Kibera team  was able to visit registrations stations as:-

Olympic, Karanja, Undugu, Laini Saba, mashimoni, Makini, Raila Education Centre, Old Kibera, Lindi, Silanga, Soweto East, Kanmbi muru, Ayany and Dc among others.

 

Turn-Out of People at Registration Station.

There was low turn-out in most of the polling-stations. “It is not a surprise to find a low turn-out on the first day”, said one of the IEBC officers at Mashimoni Squatters registration center. In Mashimoni, Raila Education center and DC, queues were building up quickly an indication that people were coming in numbers to register for the voting process. In some registration centers like YMCA there was more than one registration kit an indication that some areas like this one has a large number of people registering.

Response/Perception of the people towards the process

“The turn-out is low and I am mobilizing people to come and register”, said Fredrick Obenge an ODM aspirant.

Another community member was of the view that, even if the process was delayed, she was not going to give up her democratic right of voting in the right leaders thus registering was the only way she could ensure that she votes for the leader she wants.

Challenges of the process.

In some areas the voter registration was delayed due to some challenges which were faced. An example is the Old Kibera Registration center where the registration clerks had to move from their location to A local NGO (Kibera Women Network) due to lack of electricity.

 

Some registration officers had to look for other locations because they could not use the schools which the voter registration was scheduled to happen because classes were going on.

The VOK Team.

 

Posted in Education, Elections, Kibera, Voter Registration | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

 

Every Kenyan is entitled to better health care as provided for in the constitutions that was promulgated not too long ago. To look at women in general, they go through a biological function and what some would consider monthly periods (menstrual periods). Therefore, the use of sanitary pads is key to ensuring that during this time ones hygiene is maintained. A sanitary pad is an absorbent or otherwise item worn by women when menstruating.

In Kibera slums, due to the extreme poverty levels, there are health related challenges when it comes to female hygiene. Many girls cannot access sanitary pads every month during their periods because they are difficult to afford every month since you can’t use one more than once.

There is an interesting new product for menstrual hygiene in town that is most likely going to overtake normal sanitary pads that are used by girls/women. It is referred to as “Ruby Cup”

Ruby Cup:

Ruby Cup photo above;

Ruby Cup is a healthy, high quality and long-lasting menstrual hygiene product made of 100% FDA (Food and Drug Administration in the U.S.) approved medical grade silicone that can be re-used for up to 10 years. Ruby Cup is designed in Denmark and it is for every girl and woman who wants to treat her body with a superior menstrual hygiene solution.

Ruby Cup is a menstrual cup and menstrual cups have existed in the US and Europe for over 40 years! It is popular, modern, and comfortable, it gives you freedom and a superior lifestyle, it empowers women, it is healthy and it is good for the environment.

Yes, Ruby Cup is in Kenya! But most importantly Kibera slums apart from the fact that it will be sold in the supermarkets. “It is believed that for most of the projects that are rolled out on a large scale, they are always piloted in Kibera” Perhaps this is the reason why Ruby Cup found itself in Kibera! In supermarkets, it will be sold at a higher price while in Kibera it will be affordable and cost less.

Ruby Cup is the only alternative to pads and tampons available in Africa. If you buy one once and take good care of it, you will make a one-time investment and have the product for the next 10 years!

Facts about Ruby Cup:

It seeks to:     

i.Provide an affordable and sustainable menstrual hygiene solution to girls and women in East Africa.     

ii.Will create job opportunities as sales ladies will be receiving commissions on every ruby cup sold   

iii.Has no side effects, non allergenic, non toxic   

 iv.No leakage and can be worn up to 12 hours     

 v.Not itchy compared to some of the sanitary pads   

 vi.Environmentally friendly which means no more garbage and waste of pads and tampons in your neighbourhood

How it is used:

Insertion:

1. To ensure hygienic use, always wash your hands before inserting Ruby Cup.

2. Fold the cup as shown in the picture. Alternatively, pinch down one wall into the base so the cup forms a triangle shape.

3. Push Ruby Cup gently inside and place it in the vagina.

 Removal:

1. To ensure hygienic use, always wash your hands before removing Ruby Cup.

2. Grab the stem and use your stomach muscles to push Ruby Cup downwards until you can reach the base of the cup with your fingers. Please note that merely pulling the stem does not remove Ruby Cup, but it helps you to grab the walls. Press the walls of the cup inwards in order to release the vacuum or suction. Then you can gently take the cup out and empty it.

3. Ruby Cup should be emptied every 4 to 12 hours, depending on your menstrual flow.

Cleaning:

To disinfect Ruby Cup, boil it once a month for 5 minutes, either directly after or before your next period.

Important to note:

  • The cup should be used only for menstruation
  • It is not a preservative and must not be used as such
  • The cup is yours only – don’t share it with anybody else!
  • Remember to wash your hands before inserting or emptying the cup
  • Boil Ruby Cup for 5 minutes between your period in ordert o disinfect it

The product is sold in Kibera through Ruby Sales Ladies, currently based at Mchanganyiko hall, Karanja Road in Kibera slums.

“Now I don’t have to worry when I am in my periods, I don’t have to worry about sitting down during long meetings because I have my cup” one of the women who bought the product after a sales lady had explained to her how it works.

In conclusion, Ruby Cup benefits women, students will be able to attend school without fear whatsoever and it follows therefore that Kenya as a country is likely to achieve Education for All (EFA) Goals, Gender Parity by 2015 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if the product is embraced on a national scale.

 How Ruby Cup is Packaged;

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe | Leave a comment

Shining Hope for Communities: The first free school for girls in Kibera

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe

The Kibera School for Girls was founded in 2009 by the Kibera-bornKennedy Odede in partnership with Jessica Posner— who is, like Odede, a graduate of Wesleyan University and co-founder with Odede of the US-based nonprofit Shining Hope for Communities.

Odede decided to set up the school in an attempt to address what he saw as a fundamental gender imbalance between the opportunities available to boys growing up in the slums and those available to girls.

Odede — now 26 and the first Kiberan to graduate from Wesleyan — was brought up by his mother, whose daily struggle to make enough money to put him through school contrasted sharply with his dad’s alcoholism and squandering of the family’s meager resources. As a child, he grew used to hearing his mother talk about the importance of education and how, if she had been allowed to continue with her studies, she would have been able to provide successfully for her family.

Surrounded by women who were often forced to trade their bodies for food and for whom abuse was just part of their daily lives, Odede decided that he could not continue to stand by and watch: “I could not stay silent while I saw such wasted potential,” he stated at a recent TEDx Kibera event. “This is why I decided to found Shining Hope for Communities, because I felt that by tackling women’s problems, I would also help to address poverty in the slums in a more effective way.”

The Kibera School for Girls (KSG) is situated in the heart of the settlement. The school was built to a high standard and includes eight classrooms, a library, and a multipurpose room that was constructed with the help of the community.

In a conversation with Abigail Higgins, the Shining Hope for Communities manager of strategic partnerships, we were told that the underlying assumption of the school is that if you educate a girl, you have educated the whole community.

“We take great pride in our students, for they are already showing leadership in their communities at a young age,” Higgins told us. “The majority of them have taught their extended families and neighbors to read, and when tragedies such as a fire befall someone in their neighborhoods, they are the first to organize food drives and to collect donations.”

Currently, the Kibera School for Girls serves about 100 students ranging from kindergarten level to third grade. Higgins explained how they strive to provide a superior level of education, two daily meals, uniforms, health care, and school supplies, all free of charge. In addition to this, Higgins said, the school also provides students with after-school programs and offers psychological support to girls who have suffered from abuse.

The KSG is run by a staff of expert Kenyan female teachers, all of whom provide positive role models for the girls and the community at large. According to Higgins, the school has performed so well since it started three years ago that some of its second-grade students are now reading at an eighth-grade level.

With the recent completion of an auditorium, some art rooms, and a computer lab, the school expects to double its student intake by the next academic year and to continue to do so in the years to come.

While the curriculum that has been used in Kenya since 1985 mainly emphasizes memorization and passing exams, the KSG strives to make its curriculum a student-centered experience that fosters creativity and critical thinking skills. The idea is that by promoting weekly debates and community service projects, the KSG offers an enabling environment from which students will be able to create their own path out of poverty and become proactive and engaged citizens and leaders who can achieve real change in their society.

“Our model nurtures tomorrow’s leaders while simultaneously creating a community that supports and believes in their own future,” Higgins concludes. “These symbiotic effects strengthen and uplift everyone, exponentially increasing our impact in eradicating gender inequality and poverty.”

Posted in Education, Empowerment, Kibera | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Agent banking: Easier access to financial services for Nairobi’s poor

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe

In the past, poor people living in Nairobi slums experienced problems when attempting to gain access to financial services. This was because banks were not near their localities and they were forced to travel significant distances in search of a bank.

What this meant, for someone living in an out-of-the-way informal settlement, was that they would have to cut out a large part of their day to travel and then stand in queues. Transportation costs also had to be taken into account; more often than not, the whole endeavor would prove extremely time-consuming and costly.

Since 2010, however, there have been significant improvements in the banking sector with the introduction of agent banking, an innovative delivery channel that seeks to bring access to financial services much closer to poor people.

James Mwangi, the owner of a Kibera Equity bank agent outlet, explains how it works. “To become an Equity agent, you need to have an existing business — e.g. a consumer goods distribution, a supermarket, or a petrol station. For you to transact any business at the Equity agent-banking outlet, you need to have a registered bank account. Transactions are made with a system called Mkesho.”

Mkesho is a bank account that facilitates the transfer of money to and from your mobile phone Mpesa account and your Equity Bank account. The system offers extra benefits, such as receiving text messages confirming that you have made a deposit or withdrawn money.

Mwanghi feels that the system has been a big boost to the community, especially for people for whom mobility out of the slum can prove challenging. “Most of the people I serve are women and youths who have small businesses here in the neighborhood — mostly beauty salons, groceries, and those selling secondhand clothes.”

In Equity’s view, agents are the future for retail banking in Kenya. The principal value of the model, they say, is its use of mobile phone technology to bring affordable financial services to new customers who live in remote geographic areas within urban and rural settlements.

Kibera slum, with its huge population, has proved a good starting point, as its opportunities match Equity’s growth strategy.

More than 1,000 agents are already operating under the Equity network. This is important to Equity, which seeks to cut costs on physical branch expansion and staff hiring.

Apart from this, tapping into the predominant unbanked rural and urban-slum population is crucial for deepening access to financial services which will, in turn, help realize Kenya’s Vision 2030 — a blueprint geared towards economic, political, and social stability.

Margaret, a beauty salon owner, explains how the agent-banking model has worked in her favor: “Before this initiative came, I used to have a lot of trouble with my customers [getting calls all the time] asking where I was. With the long queues and the fact that I had to use money for transport to get to the nearest Equity two kilometers away, it always took me hours to make a transaction at the bank, and this only meant losing out on customers who had come to have their hair done.

“Luckily, I never do that anymore, because the Equity agent is just at my doorstep; hence, no more calls from customers — and if there are, it’s only to confirm the time they will be coming. This has contributed immensely to my business growth, and if all goes well, I have plans to open another salon in Makina village,” one of the
13 villages of Kibera.

The emergence of this new cash economy in remote areas, market centers, and slums is bringing hope to many Kenyan communities. This assessment coincides with the view of Equity CEO Dr. Mwangi as expressed at the agent banking launch: “This is likely to be the biggest business in Kenya’s entrepreneurial space. You helped us create the Equity brand. You were the warriors and heroes of creating the Equity brand. It’s your turn now to benefit from it.”

Originally posted on urb.im

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The Nairobi Southern Bypass through Kibera.

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Lee Ibrahim

 

With the Nairobi Southern Bypass ready to commence, Service providers and utility providers have been requested to relocate and pave way for the project. These has also affected the residents of Kibera in one way or the other.

Demolition of houses to pave way for the road.

Just two weeks ago the DC and the Administrative police visited Raila village. They were there to mark houses which would be demolished to pave way for the long awaited Nairobi Southern Bypass. With companies like the Kenya Power and Lightening Company, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company and service providers the likes of Safaricom and Airtel being directed to move or relocate their facilities, Kibera residents who had constructed near the road could never have been left out.

The residents who had build or had businesses near the Raila Village road were told to relocate on the 27th June. The Nairobi southern bypass is meant to de-congest the city. The study made by the government included other bypasses including the almost completed Eastern and Northern bypasses and the Thika superhighway.

Compensation of the demolished houses by the Government.

The bypass will stretch from Mombasa Road Ole Sereni hotel to Langata road through the Nairobi national park and moves through Kibera and Karen to join Nakuru highway at Rironi near Limuru.

With this plan in place the Government has already negotiated preparations to compensate the Kenya wildlife service for allowing the southern bypass road to cut through an arch of the Nairobi National park near wilson airport.Given that it is an arch the reparation will be used to procure additional land for the National park to promote its ecological sustainability.

And now the question arises.

What about the Kibera residents whose houses are ready to be demolished?

Will the government come up with another act like of the national park and compensate the people whose houses have been demolished?

Will the government give the people another land given that it has taken from them what they used to call home?

These are questions which are yet to be answered given that the residents of Raila Village in Kibera came out two days after their houses had been marked for demolition and demanded compensation from the government of Kenya.

Provision of jobs to the residents of Kibera.

According to Kenya urban roads association the China Road and Bridge Construction Company has been awarded the contract of KES. 17.2 billion to build the dual carriageway. With these underway the Kibera residents want to get jobs from one of this Vision 2030’s bypass project.

According to one of the resident the government jobs are mostly done using corruption hence favouring some elite tribes and leaving others in the dark. Yesterday the 9th of July 2012 there was a peaceful demonstration at the Raila Village were villagers wanted to get jobs from the Nairobi Southern Bypass project.

The residents of Kibera do not expect anything short from the 30-36 months which is required to finish the Nairobi southern Bypass, they see opportunities and for sure a way to put food on their tables.

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A Visit By Amnesty International at Map Kibera Trust

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe

 

What informed the decision to map Kibera? Who were involved? How did it happen and what made you guys decide to start Map Kibera Trust? This is the closely related Questions that brought about a wonderful discussion at the Map Kibera Trust office during the visitation of the Amnesty International guests from Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Kenya as well.

Before we could start the presentation of what we exactly do, as it is conventionally, everyone had to introduce themselves and it indeed was evident that the visiting group had eagerly anticipated this visit for there was more to learn.  During the introductions, one of them; Fubara Samuel introduced himself and when he said he was from Naigeria, I remember while thanking him i said “Thank you for the introduction ‘Oga hooh!’” this made everyone to laugh but I said to myself quietly that “This is a good dose to bring everyones’ concentration specifically to the work that we were just about to present”.

The mapping program presentation was the fast to be done and questions I have never witnessed in a long time were asked. Was it a good thing that many questions were asked? Was the time really enough to explore all aspects of our work? Did the Map Kibera Team meet some of the expectations for the Amnesty team? Your guess is as good as mine but reading the mood of the participants there was clear understanding which facilitated the kind of discussion that happened today; which was a good thing in my view.

The aspects of community acceptance/involvement, the governments take on the project were also discussed at length and there were lessons drawn from it:

i.            Not only do we need to work with leaders in given communities but also involve the community members too. This was a problem that the mapping initially experience but later learnt from it and now active community participation is key in ensuring data/contend is well generated.

ii.            Seeking governments support was also identified to be of utmost importance for without their support nothing much can be done, so for us we have been able to get the local leadership on board in understanding the broader perspective of the work we are engaged in.

A very pertinent question was raised during the discussions that how do we ensure that we are not creating maps for the sake of maps but maps that can have an influence on development? How true is the statement, “Politically, slums do exist but on the ground they don’t exist on the map?” What is the interface between the wonderful news/work you do in Kibera and the larger community? These questions cut across all the 3 programs and were tackled in the best way possible. (We have distributed some maps to organizations that work on particular themes and they are using the maps, the http://voiceofkibera.org/ is a community media platform that aggregates and maps reports against where they happen, in other words it is amplifying the capabilities of the map and how it can be used for the common good of the community- Free information sharing. Their exists various interfaces of interaction between Map Kibera and the community, for http://kiberanewsnetwork.org/ the video team normally does video screenings in video kiosks so that people can see what is happening within their localities and most importantly Map Kibera Trust organises forums to interact with the community members while creating awareness around the main issues in Kibera which have been mapped)

In conclusion, all the 3 programs had a chance to present what they do, and basing on the fact that there was much interest in Map Kibera Trusts’ work as witnessed in the participatory discussion, there are greater chances of doing this work in Nigeria as well as working together with Amnesty International.

My only hope is that, time will bring home this reality of working together with Amnesty International and or on a project in Nigeria.

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The cost of the coming Election.

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Fred

 

On  January 12,the high court issued a statement claiming Kenya’s Presidential and parliamentary elections be held March 2013 contrary to the August 2012.However,the elections could also be held in 2012 if coalition partners agree  to dissolve the coalition .There has been lots of controversy surrounding the change in dates as different views are aired on the inconvenience of  having an election within the start of the year.

 

In response to the violence after the 2007 presidential election, that divided the country and left dozens dead , the  Independent Electoral boundaries commission (IEBC)  has introduced several new technologies to ensure more peaceful elections. There has been a creation of a result transmission system, a party registration system and development of voter education messages to explain the new measures.  Every piece of technology introduced addresses specific and identified problems.

Two of the key technologies being introduced are biometric voter registration and electronic poll books, both of which address a problem with accountability on Election date. Kenya is known to have several political zones  controlled by a single political party that other parties cannot safely observe what goes on in the polling station.

The problem has been noted by observers since 1980s. The ideal long-term approach involves education campaigns for civil society and political parties to encourage greater compliance with the IEBC’s code of conduct. There is however the need to minimize the impact of any possible misconduct within polling stations in such zones.

It is through this elements of technology involved that the IEBC was allocated sh17.5 billion, by the minister of Finace Njeru Githae in the 2012-2013 budget to ensure a smooth election, hence being considered the most expensive election.

                                                               Past referendum in kibera.

During the general election period, six elections are to be held, that is, the elections for the president, a member of parliament, a women’s representative in parliament  a senator, a county governor and a county assembly member. This means, each valid voter will be entitled to cast six different ballots, as each ballot is for each election, unlike in the past where we only had three ballot papers in one session.

The voting might however be hard and confusing for the illiterate, elderly, the ailing and even the educated but unsure  who seem not to know, and also how to be able to distinguish the different ballot papers and cast each ballot in its correct box.

The entire voting session is certainly going to take longer to complete, and if voters are not allowed ample time, they are likely to commit errors during the process, hence this my fail to reflect their intentions of the voters.

The current constitution provides that all these six elections be held in one day in one voting session. The question is, Is it possible to carry out the elections in a day, for the six elections? Might this not result to chaos? What is the IEBC, doing about it?

Currently, the IEBC opted to increase the number of polling stations from 17000 in 2007 to 45,000,meaning that voters will have more time to cast their six ballots than would have been if the case if the number remained at 17000,this is a positive approach that has been welcomed by most Kenyans.

The big number of polling stations will mean that the number of election officials will more than double, and the officials will be presiding officers, deputy presiding officers, polling clerks and security officials.

Whatever the case, the cost of running the  polling stations will certainly be far much higher than was in the previous elections, the training includes; training, remuneration, transport and oversight, and this is the result of the huge  election budget.

GDP growth rates have historically dropped 2-5% during election years – as in 1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007. In 2007, after post-election violence broke out, GDP growth rate plummeted from 7% to over 1.8%, and is, still recovering today yet we  have another expensive election in due course. This is not going to be a comforting statistics in any year, given the trends of the past election years, the situation is going to be more precarious.

Voice of Kibera, the online information sharing platform for citizen journalism, looks forward to covering all the election events in all polling stations in Kibera as they update the world on all that will be revolving around in Kibera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Civic Education, Elections, Kibera, politics | Leave a comment

Global Voices Visit to Map Kibera Trust.

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe

The global voices summit will be happening in a matter of hours from now “Monday and Tuesday in Westlands” and many bloggers will be gathering to discuss issues or best practices when it comes to blogging.
Due to this summit some of the participants who are already in the country were dying to visit Map Kibera trust and get to know in detail what we really do.
Just slightly after 2pm we had the owner of welcoming them to our office on Karanja road and one could easily tell their jubilation from the look on their faces.


Without much a do, we went straight into the business of the day.
Introductions and welcome note from Milly-The coordinator of the mapping team to the presentation done by Maureen about Mapping to Joshua who did the Kibera news network and finally Sande who did the voice of Kibera one, concentration was the vocabulary of the time for no one wanted to be left out on any of the details that were being conveyed to them.
To prove the level of concentration the room was the daring questions asked from the audience which really made me realize that we do have something in common for their questions were very strategic and one can only hope  that there is going to be a wonderful relationship between Global Voices and Map Kibera Trust.


After the presentations everyone was grouped up according to the themes they were interested in reporting on as part of their field work; Educational projects, Women and HIV, Digital Literacy in Kibera, Election preparedness and the initiatives working to make sure that there is harmony before, during and after the elections slated for March 2013
We will have them compile what they found in the field and post them on the respective platforms for your consumption.

Posted in Education, Empowerment, Kibera | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Resources To Improve Learning In Primary Schools

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Friends Learning Resources, an Australian-based non-profit organization with Christian roots was today at Raila Educational Centre. The organization that has been in Kenya for the past seven years is seeking to increase literacy levels through offering high quality learning resources … Continue reading →

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Mapping Kibera

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Sande Wycliffe

Before October 2009, Kibera, the second largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa, was a blank spot — one that had been photographed and filmed thousands of times but that no one had ever attempted to document properly.

It was at about this time that Mikel Maron and Erica Hagen, alongside a group of 13 enthusiastic youth, sought to put Kibera on the world map with the Map Kibera project. In so doing, they would provide Kibera residents and other stakeholders with a source of public, open, and shared information that would, they hoped, be used to enhance living standards in the settlement.

At that point, Kibera was completely absent from online resources like Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. This lack of basic information about geography and available resources made it much more difficult for residents and other stakeholders in Kibera communities to carry on an informed discussion about how to improve the lives of citizens there.

Approach: Identifying key thematic areas

Once a pilot map had been completed, it became clear that the team needed to develop a model for comprehensive, engaged collection of community information. Subsequent mapping focused on specific thematic areas that were considered to be of primary importance: health, security, education, and water and sanitation.

This new round of mapping added details such as operating hours and services provided by private clinics, as well as enabling the team to double-check the original data. Mappers carried digital cameras or Flip camcorders, and took photos of clinics or recorded interviews with clinicians and other health workers whenever possible.

Small community forums targeting those interested in each issue area were also conducted, at which participants were able to examine the printed maps and add comments and missing information by drawing on tracing paper over the map.

Approach: Engaging citizen journalism

To fully realize the broader vision of the project — not just a one-off map, but an engaged community mobilized around open and shared information, stories, and knowledge — it was clear that the project would have to expand and integrate the information with other technology projects and with local media.

Citizen journalism would provide a comprehensive picture of the local reality and support the achievement of community goals. To aggregate information on a map and create a platform for local storytelling, Ushahidi, an open source software for crowdsourcing information, was very helpful. Local media — including Voice of Kibera, Kibera Journal, published byKCODA, and Pamoja FM community radio, as well as a Flip camcorder video team — could map stories. These community media are the only outlets that cover Kibera from within and are a vital source of news.

Outcomes: Kibera Mappers, residents, and the international community

Apart from the obvious acquisition of new skills in using computers, video editing, citizen journalism, and new technology (GPS), several Map Kibera volunteers now have new social skills and greater comfort in public speaking and encountering strangers. This is both within Kibera, where they have had to reply to general inquiries about the activity, and in greater Nairobi, where they have been invited to participate in functions such as meetings and conferences about technology (Ushahidi Day, 1% Club, TEDx Kibera).

The mapping project itself was well received from the start by local organizations. There has been no resistance to the concept from CBOs, NGOs, or local government. Whether viewed as technology skill training for those on the other side of the digital divide, a way to get important and accurate data, a potential tool for the advocacy work of the organization, or just a practical way for visitors to find their way around in Kibera, the project has been widely embraced as the realization of something previously missing, yet clearly fundamental: the right to exist on a map.

Many have requested the paper map, which is in production. While the separation from greater Nairobi and its corridors of power cannot be overstated, the map seemed to bring the community closer to legitimacy and give a sense of being a real neighborhood.

Sensitive to external perceptions and Kibera’s negative reputation, Kiberans appreciate any image that portrays it in a positive (or at least “normal”) light, and this map does exactly that. (This is a constant subject for debate; for example, see “On Kibera, flying toilets and poop.”)

Local organizations are keen to be represented and eager to learn how they can make use of the map — as well as the Voice of Kibera web site — to highlight their activities. (Only foreign journalists seemed to think of it as a politically subversive activity or a potential tool of state control.)

It is important to note that data collected is also being reused daily in different international contexts. Groups with an interest in a variety of issues — including health, gender-based violence, sanitation, new mobile phone services, large-scale conflict mapping, and peace promotion — have contacted the directors to look into collaboration or use of collected data, sparking new thinking on each issue and the potential for the project to move in unexpected directions.

This post was originally posted on http://urb.im  and has some exerps from Erica Hagen one of the Map Kibera Trust founders http://wiki.ikmemergent.net/index.php/Workspaces:The_changing_environment_of_infomediaries/Map_Kibera

 

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