Map Kibera

I recently attended the World Bank Innovation Fair in Cape Town, South Africa. It was an interesting assemblage of people working around the world on projects ranging from conflict mapping to social issue reality TV shows. Many involved technology, but a fair amount did not – innovation can come in many forms.

The conference was meant to last only two days, but due to a certain volcanic ash cloud, the informal after-conference lasted up to a week for some. In fact, I’m not even sure if everyone is home yet. Getting to know your colleagues off-Twitter from a variety of sectors is invaluable, and this crowd wasn’t made up of the usual conference-goers since 30 of the project leaders (including us) had won an online contest in order to be chosen. In fact, due to an abundance of strictly timed elevator-style presentations, much of the conference felt like cross between American Idol and an industry trade show, with everyone hawking their newest invention to age-old problems. Even when some of them seemed to fall apart upon closer inspection, I was impressed by the spirit of invention  – dare I say, a DIY mentality? (Innovation is a nice word, but why not invention? The inventor conjures a half-mad genius in the lab, an Einstein, an Edison, who, fueled by the mad drive to create, finally produces a light bulb). Many of the attendees had obviously come with the hope of convincing the judges (er…World Bank) to finance their experiments. It was a long shot.

I had a moment of recognition that this is the best place to be in what has become the mega-industrial aid and development complex. I’d rather be around 30 creative inventors pitching their ideas with vigor (even if 29 of them never succeed) than 3000 executives at the next Global Conference on a Big Issue. It is those who take a chance on an idea and run with it who command my greatest respect. This is not coincidentally thanks to my experience of the difficulty of actually bringing an idea to fruition! That would be my only caviat: ideas are great, but talk to me after you have actually tried it out with real people.

So – here are just a few of the cool things I learned of, with great people to match (there were others I wanted to include BUT could not find online – if your project doesn’t even have a basic website how can it inspire others around the world? And if it’s not public, even worse.):

-       Reconstructed Living Labs: – Using social media to reform lives; plus they use MXit to do counseling and they all blog on their phones. They’re highlighted in this video: (otherwise: warning, very cheesy conference video).

-       Hibr: – Lebanese youth newspaper and online independent citizen media. They also want to create a traveling media lab out of an old bus.

-       Armed Conflict and Location Event Dataset: Mapping armed conflict, including ground research to determine who is doing what.

-       Voices Beyond Walls – Palestinian youth media and mapping project.

-       Voices of Africa: Nairobi-based project of solar-powered rural internet kiosks.

–      UNDP Threat and Risk Mapping: Makes use of participatory mapping to determine local needs, and plan for village development in Sudan. Not sure if this is shared, public information though.

There are many days like today in Kibera. I went down to KCODA early today to pick up video clips, and ended up staying for hours with students from the nascent Kibera News Network : helping add voice over audio clip to a completed piece, realizing that we were editing the wrong clip, converting a mysterious file type into one compatible with our software (this never succeeded), transferring materials via my flash drive (a rare commodity) from one computer to the next, and then suddenly – the power went out. And then, it started to rain, hard. So we all sat in the dark office and watched the rain, our day suddenly stopped in its tracks. Julius, the KCODA director, about to leave for lunch, us about to finish editing some video, and then – nothing but the sound of the rain, nowhere to go, nothing to do.

I had started out the day rushing around trying to accomplish things without success: getting my computer repaired, exchanging my new USB plug-in modem for one that works. These tasks had also failed, and now, watching the rain pour down harder and harder onto the mud streets of Kibera, I had to just give up. And wait.

I often think that in Nairobi, things work just well enough to make it frustrating. You expect the power to stay on, you expect the computers to function, you think your new Orange modem will work with your Mac. Everything functions at breakneck speed, until we’re reminded (much like the lesson of the Icelandic volcano ash, I think) that it all really hangs on a thread and nature, bureaucracy, fate, malice, just plain traffic jam can pull it down at any moment. In fact, the Friday afternoon traffic jam today was standstill, given the rain.

After a nice chat with the guys at KCODA the rain finally eased up, and I left – frustrated, but not for long. Check out this insanely beautiful rainbow I was then treated to, while sitting in a dirty matatu listening to the driver’s reggae mix:

Oddly, no one else seemed to be looking at it. But what wonders a natural wonder can do for you after a week of struggling with community technology.

I would like to introduce…Kibera News Network, Kibera’s first TV news station. Featuring online content produced by 16 youth from Kibera!

Last week, we began training 16 enthusiastic youth on Flip cameras. We haven’t quite got the internet installed at KCODA for the uploading, so we’re not quite online yet. But I can’t wait. Just see below all the amazing stories that the teams are planning to report on. They have already started and I’ve seen some great footage! THESE are some of the stories that are hidden inside the slums waiting to be told. Notice that most groups categorized stories into themes (and some only had themes, so we will work on that).

Group 1:
Collins, Moha, Steve

1) Noise pollution: the noise rules are not followed; during day it is very noisy due to business activities like CD shops.
2) Olympic bus terminus: the bus turn about was repaired but it not used (waste of municipal funds?)
3) Need for bumps along chief’s camp road: speeding vehicles are dangerous to school children
4) Dangers of living along the railway lines: possibility that train will fall on them, endangering their lives
5) Grabbing of land meant for pavements and paths: no room for pedestrians due to building out into slum road
6) Youths and illegal gangs in Olympic – repairing your structure often requires bribe payment to them
7) Interference of power transformers by residents: those who live in kibera often replace the fuses themselves: this causes fire to houses such as that last week of several homes
8. Insecurity: Bars operate till very late, so they can harbor criminals
9) Presence of local artists who promote peace: like solo 7 and maasai 2

Group 2:
Regynnah, George, Eddie

1) Talents: profiles of especially talented youth: youths playing football, singing, other
2) Security: adopt-a-light program and how it has helped security since lights are now available in some areas, also chief’s place improvements that improved security
3) Education: in Kibera there are some very good schools like Olympic that is top in country, and Soweto academy: profiling top schools in slums
4) Unity: in case of fire outbreak, people unite to help each other and don’t wait for fire truck – team firefighting in kibera
5) Love: people don’t allow each other to go hungry, neighbor will give food if someone needs it
6) Informed: we as youths of kibera are well informed about our rights, not ignorant
7) Fighting poor sanitation: there is a cleanup process where youth gather together and clean the villages themselves
8. Fighting poverty: many people are self-employed, own their own kiosks and do not work for others
9) Self-reliant: Those in Kibera do shopping in Kibera, not Nakumatt – one can just get the same items cheaper here and that way the money stays local to Kibera

Group 3:
Mildred, Jacob, Shadrack, Sizzah

1) Sanitation: community health and garbage collection
2) Education: outsiders think Kiberans are not literate and educated; showing that is not true
3) Development: community initiatives that are trying to improve Kibera
4) Recollection: sports and events, community activities and talents, fun
5) Lifestyle: poverty – people are sometimes wealthy but staying here anyway – inside their mud houses you find nice things they have bought.
6) Housing and land
7) Human Rights
8. Intercultural and Religious: People intermarrying among tribes. Others think they cannot stay together due to election violence. Is this a problem since 2008?
9) Disease
10) Skills, Knowledge: one man built a vehicle for himself in Kibera using scrap metal alone – profile of entrepreneurship

Group 4:
Isabella, Wilfred, Hassan

1) Biogas projects coverage
2) Youth group activities documentation
3) Sanitation – water taps and toilets
4) farming produce in sacks – new method for business and fighting hunger
5) poultry farming – can get financially stable by chicken farming in Kibera
6) lobbying and advocacy
7) kazi kwa vijana: jobs for youth program follow up – is it working? have youth found jobs?
8. security
9) expansion of roads and impact that is having – some people are being pushed out
10) hospitals establishment: residents use local clinics not Kenyatta hospital – plenty of local health services now

Group 5:
Cliffton, Douglas, Lucy

1) Sanitation: UN toilet compared to CDF funded: comparison of quality
2) Education: informal vs formal schools – quality comparison
3) Health: how people approach public health and facilities
4) Transport infrastructure: looking at roads inlets and outlets
5) Business: kinds of businesses that exist here, commodities produced.
6) Drainage system: sewage disruption in gutters caused by blockages leading to home flooding, yet sewer lines run right under kibera without servicing it.
7) Housing: slum upgrading project and how are initial structures looking
8. Public health: Food kiosks: whether environment is sanitary at these kiosks
9) Water: toilets built along water channels, drainage creates disease
10) Tribes: enclaves: conflicts because people are now living in different areas not mixed. each village is enclave. how this happened, makes it easy for attacks on tribes since you know who is who.
11) Land issue: no one has title deeds which causes major problems