Slums of Africa

One of the topics we discussed in class for the past two weeks was about two slums in Africa. One of them has a positive story and the other one is more negative. It is crazy to think that the human population keeps growing to the point that we are running out of resources and areas where people could live. These slums are packed with people who are poor and cannot afford to live in the more rural areas, so urbanization started as the population gets bigger. 

Mathare is the oldest urban slum in Africa and the world its population is about half a million. The biggest problem they face in Mathare is the sanitation. There is waste everywhere because they don't have a system where to dispose of the trash properly. Also, they hardly have restrooms so human waste is in the streets and in water sources. The restrooms have a poor drainage system and sewage pipes often leak, contributing to the pollution in the area. Since there is waste everywhere around the slum, there is a higher chance of getting many diseases and sicknesses. There isn’t a good way to clean up the waste so the people don’t do anything, making the problem worse. The second problem these people face is obtaining clean water, which is limited in their areas. I didn’t consider the fact that finding water can disrupt a child’s education because the children have to find or carry clean water to their families. There are very few clean water stations in the slum and it is on the outskirts so people have to walk a great distance to get the water. Learning about this type of slum is eye-opening because you would think there would be groups of people who would try to help make their living situations better because it is such a huge area of people, but there doesn’t seem to be. I wonder how much money it would take to build some houses to help the people, and how long it would take to clean the area of all the waste. Also, I wonder if life in Mathare has improved since the time the video was made 2 years ago.

There is a slum in Kenya that has a happier story than Mathare and that is Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and the world, and its population is over 1 million people. We watched a video in class that seemed like a sort of advertisement. The video showed the people in Kibera who are building their economy with different markets and businesses. They mentioned that many famous people have lived in that slum and are living a successful life, giving hope to those who too live in the slum. It is surprising that they talk about how happy their life is, but the Mathare slum looked very similar to Kibera. I wonder how the biggest slum in Africa is able to be successful and what Mathare could learn from Kibera’s example of urban living.

Since I live in an urban area it is interesting to learn about different urban areas in the world. However, it’s also sad knowing that people live in worst situations than I would have imagined. I wonder what I could do to help these people who live in the worst slums, and if there are any people now who are helping them. 

Child Soldiers

In places of the world there are children who have to face adult decisions and are growing up too fast. There are children who, by our standards, their childhood is being taken away from them because they are being kidnapped to be a child soldiers. It is surprising to think that a small child would wield a gun to kill a person they are told to kill, when they definitely shouldn't be experiencing that kind of trauma at all. 

In class we watched a video about a child soldier who was kidnapped and forced to work in the field. He was found and rescued, then returned home, but he made the decision at a young age to join the army to fight against those who kidnap children and turn them into slaves. To his father it was more important that he get an education first before making an adult decision to join the army, especially when he was needed at home. The boy decided to quit and return home but I think that for child he shouldn't have to make that kind of decision in the first place. According to the website www.child-soldiers.org the definition of a child soldier is "a child associated with an armed force or armed group (child soldier) is any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities." I have learned that being a child soldier doesn't just refer to children holding guns and fighting but could also mean any type of forced labor. 

A story that I heard about during a volunteer event called We Day was from an inspirational speaker name Michel Chikwanine who talked about his experience about being a child soldier when he was the age of 5. He, unlike the boy in the video, had a worse experience because Michel was force to shoot his best friend because the warlord covered his eyes and yelled shoot at him. Michael described his horrible experience that opened my eyes to what bad experience young childreen face that I would have never have otherwise known. 

There aren’t many solutions I could find that could help stop child soldiers other than donating to organizations that fight to stop these terrible warlords. Since we are learning about human rights in class I was able to learn more about child soldiers and the true meaning of them.