Katie Garner, strategic communications professional and photographer based in Kigali, Rwanda is a long time collaborative partner with African Road. Recently, she made a site visit to Nairobi, Kenya and collected first hand reports and powerful photography. Here, she tells the story of an African Road partnership.
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Phoebe was perched behind her tiny counter with a wide metal grill (grate) that blocked parts of her face, the brightly coloured packets of sweets were visible in front of her, and upon seeing us, a broad smile emerged. Her ‘shop’ was 0.75 metres square at most, with a tiny door underneath the grill, so that she could bend to move in and out. The space had been carved out of the next door neighbour’s hairdressing salon, another business that thrives within this community – appearance, it matters. Phoebe told us that during the day, she stays at the shop, but come evening when workers go home, she sets up business at the side of the road, exchanging sweets for hard earned wages.
She has a daughter with epilepsy, she told us, who had benefited from ‘our’ support. Could she introduce her?
Leah was lying down on a sofa when we walked into their living room, we had brushed past the bougainvillaea bushes that climbed the external fence and bloomed overhead. Through the common alleyway, and into a small, dark room with a copy of the ten commandments on the wall. Large, oversized sofas took up three sides of the room, filling the space. Leah was having a bad day, and we were cautious. 
“Karibu, Karibu,” they welcomed us in, and gently, tentatively, we started asking questions. Leah, 40, had always suffered with epilepsy, and when she was well, she was well, but on bad days, she struggled to move. She graciously offered us a broad smile, and agreed to a couple of photos, wrapping her arms around her body to hold herself up.
It had been a struggle, they told us, for food to survive and with which to take medicine, but the support had made a difference.
This is Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, one of the largest in the world.
Phoebe and Leah were part of a COVID emergency fund that was made possible through friends of African Road, in partnership with Urban Impact, a small but powerful Kenyan organisation led by Changemaker Moses.
Urban Impact leads transformative community engagement in Nairobi. With the help of two small churches, one in each settlement, they had identified 30 of the most vulnerable people in Kibera during COVID. The churches were considered the best way to find the most vulnerable in these communities. Food vouchers and mentoring were provided, and a small sum to invest in each of their businesses.
“When we got the food voucher and could buy food, [we were] using little by little to last some time and to boost health, we were no longer take medicines on an empty stomach. No longer [are we] struggling like we used to before,” Phoebe told us.
Vulnerability is a complex term in this context. How can you identify the most vulnerable in communities where the average life expectancy is approx. 30 (child mortality rates skewing the numbers), unemployment is 50%, and there is no sanitation and little infrastructure? Add in COVID, and this appears to be a recipe for disaster, particularly given that the settlement was all but separated off from the rest of Nairobi, by COVID restrictions.
‘Initially, Kibera had been labelled as a death square during the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to dense population. A typical house measures 12 feet by 12 feet accommodating up to 8 people or more as a family. [There is] no constant water supply while electricity depends on other factors such as illegal connections, tampered metres and solar power.’ 1
As with everywhere in the world, along with the risk of infection was the challenge of economic sustainability. Here, as in so many places, money is earned daily, with little additional resources or savings available.
In response, Urban Impact Kenya approached local churches to find the most vulnerable within communities, many were those with disabilities, most were women “Mothers start small businesses,” Judith, an Urban impact staff member, told me.
“Why is it always the women who are picking it up, who are going to work?” I asked a very pregnant Judith, and raised an arched eyebrow at Moses, who sat across from me. He laughed in response, and Judith spoke up, “Mothers; women, believe in big things, they can do anything.”
Moses is the founder of Urban Impact, an African Road Changemaker, and a pastor. The excellent Judith works for Urban Impact, and along with local guide, Michelle, led me through the undulating alleyways of Kibera.
There was a particular pride in all of the people that I met, showing me their business, their space, the results of their hard work, the way that they have innovated with the help of the Urban Impact and African Road.
In Kawangware, another informal settlement in Nairobi, 65 year old Anne had been asking when someone was going to come and photograph her shop, a large, wooden space filled to the brim with fruit and vegetables, packets of crisps, and other brightly coloured snacks. Her request was an expression of gratitude, but also an act of pride – it said, “this is who I am, this is what I can achieve.” I had the immense privilege of witnessing people’s success, these business women and men, these people.
I want to tell you about James, who, with impaired vision, runs a hairdressing salon in the alleyway outside of the small house his family share.
You need to hear about the life of Phyllis who couldn’t access necessary stock (supplies) during the pandemic, and used her grant to invest in packaging, which her contemporaries needed, thus feeding her family.
The stories are endless: stories of powerful extraordinary women and men made vulnerable by context, supported by Urban Impact Kenya, in partnership with friends of African Road.
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1 https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/their-own-hands-kibera-kenyas-largest-slum-tames-covid-19
African Road works in East Africa through partnerships with local leaders to ensure that strategic support is sustainable. Aid is not our mission (there are other, excellent organizations that do this well), instead our focus is targeted support that will help people to take a step forward and build a future. In this instance, the lump sum provided was for sustainable business investment. Hair dryers were bought, inventory was replenished, spaces rented, all of which enabled a better income in the long-term. Food vouchers were provided as a COVID exception in this instance, to enable people to eat while they built or rebuilt their businesses. This was made possible in partnership with Kenyan Changemaker, Moses, with whom African Road has worked intermittently over seven years.