News From This Week
– Â Map tracing exercises are proving to be a fascinating tool for bringing community knowledge into the commons. Â We held five 2-hour map tracing community meetings this week. With printed maps (featuring security data collected last week by our mappers), tracing paper and pens, we met with different aged girls from Binti Pamoja (ages 10-18 and 18-24) as well as security providers such as community police and elders.
The girls revealed behavioral norms while the service providers gave the big picture. Early versions of the scanned, rectified, tiled and displayed maps are here. You can see pictures from these meetings here.
Just a few of the things we learned:
Girls are often at risk when they go to nightly funeral parties to dance, and when they go out in town, they often stay out until 5AM to avoid returning to Kibera in the dark. We have also learned that while much violence is tied to drug and alcohol abuse, a single drug rehab center (SEPTA) serves Kibera, and does not provide outreach into the informal areas. Most carjacking takes place at the Anany Bridge, and  rape and abduction often takes place either near Jamhuri Park or in Silanga near the Nairobi Dam.
– Using our Flip Cams, we launched the Kibera News Network, a youth-run Youtube channel that provide narratives about the mapping data and general news about Kibera.
– We introduced Voice of Kibera, an Ushahidi instance that allows Kibera residents to report updates about safety, security, and news from Kibera.
What’s Next?