Mathare Valley is one of Nairobi's oldest and poorest slums. Mathare is definitely not on the tourist map. A maze of narrow rocky roads squeeze between piles of garbage that look like mini mountains. Here there are no gardens, no trees, no wide open spaces. It's crammed with people. It's noisy, dirty. Open trenches filled with garbage and human waste are rivers that seem to encircle every dwelling.
It is against this humbling background that the Mathare Community Outreach works to produce success stories. Their mission is to bring physical, emotional, and spiritual light through education and training to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. Daniel and Magdaline Ogutu and their team run an excellent children's program. The children receive an education, and they see and feel love modeled through caring teachers.
Every child who lives in the Mathare Valley slum is vulnerable or at risk. Kids in Mathare Valley begin life with the odds stacked against them. It's a dangerous place to live. There's an illegal brew called chang'aa that is a product of the slum. It's a small-business for some, a way to make a living since other work is so hard to find. Alcoholism and drug abuse are pervasive. Many mothers turn to prostitution in order to have money to buy food. HIV/AIDS is taking its toll on the people of Mathare Valley. The number of AIDS orphans climbs each week. Children having no home but the streets turn to begging, stealing, prostitution, and drug-dealing to survive. MCO cannot accept every child, therefore they have chosen to serve only the poorest of the poor.
Because of the staggering poverty, the school provides the children with their only meals each day. The Mathare Community Outreach project has grown over the years in the numbers of children being served. MCO has now expanded into three centers serving over 1400 primary and secondary students. There are 380 orphans in total being educated in three centers.
The MCO teachers are dedicated to their work. "The job we are doing is not for the money. It is a calling," says one teacher. "I derive joy from being a teacher when I see the children learning well and growing up to become better members of society."
| Lot Number |
Quantity |
Lead |
Description |
| 1 |
1 |
SCHOOL YARD FACES (#33) |
18"x24" - It's hard to ignore the constant requests of the children in the school yard to "take a picture." The bright eyes and eager smiles reveal hope for a bright future. |
| 2 |
1 |
NARROW STREET (#18) |
16"X24" - In daylight the streets of Mathare are narrow and treacherous to navigate. Nightfall brings worries of another kind to the inhabitants of these shanties they call home. |
| 3 |
1 |
CHILD WITH DOLL (#26) |
24"x36" -Most children never have a chance to get an education. They end up entrapped in the cycle of poverty becoming street children, criminals or prostitutes. |
| 4 |
1 |
SANITATION SYSTEM (#14) |
16"x24" - The lack of modern sanitation services in the valley creates sights and smells that capture the attention of visitors. |
| 5 |
1 |
HAZEL DELL LETTER (#38) |
24"'x36" - Hazel Dell School in Springfield, Illinois and Mathare Community Outreach Child Development Center in Mathare Valley have begun a letter exchange partnership. |
| 6 |
1 |
FATHER OF FOUR (#17) |
16"x24" - This father moved his four boys to Mathare so they could attend school at Mathare Community Outreach. He works as a night security guard in Nairobi, leaving the boys alone in the valley. He hopes to provide them a future outside the slum. |
| 7 |
1 |
REVELATION (#11) |
24"x36" - This home-based business owner awaits a customer against the backdrop of booming music, unsupervised street children, 70% unemployment, extreme poverty, criminal activity, and garbage lined streets. This is Mathare Valley. |
| 8 |
1 |
BOXERS DOING PUSH-UPS |
18"x24" - Young men from Mathare find a sense of belonging and camaraderie through a church-based boxing program as they learn to build healthy relationships. |
| 9 |
1 |
LUNCH AT MCO (#75) |
24"x36" - A classroom of children enjoying their lunch meal. The feeding program at Mathare Community Outreach is a highlight of coming to school for these children who often do not get a meal on days when school is not in session. |
| 10 |
1 |
ORPHANED CHILDREN (#79) |
24"x36" - Orphaned children as young as 9 are left to raise younger siblings. Many have lost both parents to HIV/AIDS or various criminal activities. |
| 11 |
1 |
BOXING GEAR (#63) |
18"x24" - In September 2008, Marc Ayers of Springfield, Illinois caught Pastor Vitalis Matinde's vision to start a boxing program in Mathare Valley. Marc was instrumental in securing donations of boxing gloves from local Springfield businesses-which were hand delivered to Mathare Valley in September 2009. |
| 12 |
1 |
ELVIS STUDIES FOR KCSE (#51) |
24"x36" - A young man, Elvis, studies for the secondary school certification examination he will take in a week. Completing a secondary education is key to finding a way out of the slum. Only a handful of students have a chance to receive this type of education. |
| 13 |
1 |
FAMILIES WORSHIP AT 4B |
24"x36" - Families worshiping at a church in the heart of Mathare Valley. |
| 14 |
1 |
CHILDREN AT RISK (#76) |
24"x36" - Children in Mathare Valey are at risk for dysentery, malnutrition, malaria, typhoid, cholera, tetanus, polio and various other diseases and threats. |
| 15 |
1 |
CHANG'AA BREWING (#60) |
48"x36" - Criminal brewers use the Nairobi River to distill an illicit brew known to cause immediate death or blindness-chang'aa. People in the valley consume it to relieve stress and desperate mothers give it to their hungry children to stop the all-night crying. On July 7, 2005 alone, 51 people died and 18 lost their sight to this industrial-strength alcohol-and this was not an isolated incident. |
| 16 |
1 |
MATHARE VALLEY ROOFTOPS (#45) |
96"x44" - Approximately 500,000 people live in an area with population densities reaching a staggering 1,250 inhabitants per 2.5 acres. |
| 17 |
1 |
ZAINABU (#1) |
24"x36" - Zainabu, age 21, lives in Mathare Valley raising her two younger sisters alone. Orphaned at 18 with no escape from the valley and a job paying less than $1 a day, Zainabu lost hope-until two years ago. She received a scholarship through Bright Hope International to study journalism at the university. Zainabu says, "I want to see my dreams comes true so I can reach back and help others like they have helped me." |
| 18 |
1 |
YOUNG GIRL GAZING OVER VALLEY (#8) |
24"x36" - A young girl gazes out over the valley outside the church at Mathare 4B. |
| 19 |
1 |
MOTHERS AND CHILDREN WORSHIP (#4) |
24"x36" - Mothers and children worshiping at a church in the heart of Mathare Valley. |
| 20 |
1 |
BOXER WARMING UP (#66) |
24"x36" - The boxing program provides these Mathare men a chance to remove themselves from the sinister influences that permeate the valley. It also deters them from joining the prevalent gangs. |
| 21 |
1 |
LUNCH AT MCO |
24"x36" - A meal of ugali (corn meal) or beans is served to the children who attend Mathare Community Outreach Child Development Center. Sukuma wiki or fish are added to increase the nutritional content of the meals. |
| 22 |
1 |
STUDENT RESTING AGAINST WINDOW (#36) |
24"x36" - A primary school student at Mathare Community Outreach waits patiently for her friends at a classroom window. |
| 23 |
1 |
BOYS IN DOORWAY (#34) |
24x36 - There are hundreds of thousands of children who call Mathare home. Fewer than 4,000 of them ever have a chance to attend school. (Actual print is of the faces only.) |
| 24 |
1 |
THE RIVER (#80) |
48"x36" - Rainwater, mud, sewage water and even human remains flow through the valley during rainy seasons. During subsequent draught the remains rot, diseases break out and fresh water becomes almost impossible to find. Survival mode is the way of life in the valley. |
| 25 |
1 |
WOMAN AT WORK (#12) |
24"x36" - A woman guards her wares displayed in this storefront. She represents the jua-kali" sector-a profession where people make household items from locally available materials to sell. |
| 26 |
1 |
YOUNG CHILDREN WORSHIP AT 4B (#3) |
24"x36" - Young children worshiping at a church in the heart of Mathare Valley. |
| 27 |
1 |
5TH GRADER READS LETTER (#39) |
48"x36" - A fifth grade student reads a letter received from a Hazel Dell School student as Douglas Katho, a teacher at MCO, listens. |
| 28 |
1 |
BOXERS PRAYING (#65) |
24"x36" - Young men from Mathare find a sense of belonging and camaraderie through a church-based boxing program as they learn to build healthy relationships. |
| 29 |
1 |
HANDS AT CLASSROOM WINDOW (#48) |
18"x24" - Excited students peer out the window of their classroom. |
| 30 |
1 |
DOUGLAS PRAYING (#7) |
48"x32"- Douglas Katho, age 30, of Nairobi, Kenya, prays during the Sunday worship service. He serves as a teacher at the Mathare Community Outreach school and a Sunday school teacher at the Outreach Community Church. |
| 31 |
1 |
RECESS (#46) |
18"x24" - Recess time-a group of fourth-graders enjoy a game of football in the Mathare School yard. |
| 32 |
1 |
OCC CHURCH IN MATHARE 4B (#58) |
48"x22" - Outreach Community Church located in Mathare 4B uses the home-based church concept to bring hope and light into this dark place. |
| 33 |
1 |
THUMBS UP (#41) |
24"x36" - A smile and thumbs up for the opportunity these children have to secure a quality education in Mathare Valley. |
Charity Art Auction at Hope Church
