The 180 or so people in the MWAMO families are still living in Korogocho, next to the toxic Nairobi Municipal Dump which has significant detrimental consequences for people's health. The shacks each family lives in (and has to pay rent for) are just a single room, normally 10 feet (3 metres) square, made of corrugated iron which is baking hot in hot weather and very cold when the temperature drops - Nairobi's altitude is 1800 metres and it can get very cold.
They are a close-knit community, very diverse in terms of tribe and religion. Most have been friends and neighbours for many years, holding together even through the inter-tribal post-election violence of 2007/2008. They are mostly deeply poor.
We have some new photographs of the Dump and of some MWAMKO members in Korogocho. They show how important it is for this project to succeed, There are about 200,000 people living in Korogocho and pressure for homes grows. For some time now people have been building ever closer to the dumpsite, even on to older sections of it. There are many fires, some deliberate to reduce the volume of waste, others from the spontaneous combustion of chemical and industrial materials. You can see the result above - though very often the smoke is intensely black. You can see the diggers dealing with the latest additions. The dump covers 30 acres.
Children play wherever they can, as children do. The streets are dangerous, however, and the incidence of crime, violence and drug use in Korogocho is high.
These houses, above, are almost touching the dump. Some people make a living scavenging from the dump, as indeed one of the MWAMKO members used to do. It must be unpleasant work - also very dangerous. And see below...
This is a planning meeting outside the houses of several MWAMKO members, with new CHT Trustee Jan Eijkemans (front left), CHG Chairman Harrison Kwach (second left), CHG Project manager Abdi Mohammed (second from right). The others are members of the MWAMKO committee.
CHT, CHG and MWAMKO are all registered - CHT in the UK with the Charity Commission since 2002, CHG in Kenya as a Community Based Organisation and MWAMKO in Kenya as a Mutual Help Group.
Below, two typical street scenes. There is no sanitation or drainage, which explains the run-off seen in the lower photo below.
