John Paul II School in Kibera

Last week, we taught at John Paul II Mixed Secondary School in Kibera. Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa after Soweto in Johannesburg, with over 700 000 people crammed into an area of 2.5 sq km. I have definitely never been anywhere like Kibera, and don't think I can articulate the intricacies of teaching at a school there properly quite yet. It was a really good experience for us teaching at the school John Paul II - our students were amazing, very bright and really challenged us a lot. This is unsurprising, because the administration told us that the standards for admission at JP II are extremely rigorous, whereby students must be from Kibera, must pass an academic exam, and must maintain good grades or they will be asked to leave.

Teaching in the Form 3 Class

One of our big initiatives this year is to start YESS clubs at each of our schools that we will provide with resources to keep talking about the topics we teach on throughout the year. A big part of our outreach work has been devoted to planning what form we see these clubs taking, as well as developing the information manual for students. We had our first meeting with the JP II students today and it was really promising. We had an outstanding turnout, with more students present than we could have hoped for. They seemed really interested in helping us gear our outreach activities towards what they identify as useful, and even agreed to put together a drama group to prepare educational skits for their community. We are going to go back once for another meeting with the club before our outreach day in Kibera on June 23. Plans for that day are still being formed, but we have made a promising start and it looks like it will involve a mobile VCT, games, and mass education through skits created by the students.

Form 3 Class Photo

I have a few more interesting stories from Kibera. Gaddiel and I, as part of our logistics work, checked out many of the VCTs and medical clinics in the area. While one of them (run by a large NGO) was quite disappointing in its approach to dealing with young people, another was extremely inspiring. We took a tour of the facility, and I was really impressed by how sanitary and well-equipped it was for a building that blended in so completely to the surrounding slum. Part of the tour included meeting a HIV+ mother who had given birth that morning and watching the nursing staff administer ARV treatment as a prophylactic measure to her infant. It was a really incredible glimpse into a different side of life at Kibera. In addition, we made an excellent connection with the women who runs the facility and with the local MSF that operates in the community.

The other thing that I cannot leave out of any post about Kibera is seeing the children. The term for white person in Kiswahili is “mzungu”, and everywhere we went we were trailed by hordes of little children asking us “Howareoo, mzungu?!?”. Pretty adorable. One of the last days, a little guy asked me “Howareoo??”, and when I answered “I’m fine, how are you?” he proceeded to take my hand and walk with me several hundred metres down the lane. A very cute moment on an otherwise rainy, muddy day in Kibera.

I know that we all really valued our experiences last week, and gained a lot from working with the students at John Paul II. We are back to Kibera for our 5^th week of teaching at Kibera Glory Secondary School starting on June 14th.