By JANE ANYANGO | FOUNDING DIRECTOR
“Our house is completely flooded with very clear water even after the rains, we are cold and forced to share one bed in our home with our parents, I don't feel like going home!" remarked on of the teenage mothers in our programs. We knew Kibera had been forgotten that the rains had affected the people, properties had been destroyed and some lost, lives had been lost and many houses flooded as a result of the rains, but we did not think of this worse situation where water was oozing from the floors and families forced to share beds in the cold rooms because the floors where the children slept in normal days could nolonger be used. The Kenyan Government and other well-wishers swiftly moved to respond to the flooding situation in Mathare slums where so many home were swept away and more lives lost. No one was talking about Kibera, with this, many assumed that the situation was not that bad.
Polycom mentors took their time to visit families in one of the areas where 3 teenage mothers live. The situation worse than we would have imagined. In response, Polycom decided to create alot of advocacy around supporting these families and a few organizations responded. Some got food and other household items, but the houses were still flooded and very cold, children and their parents still had no place to sleep.
Polycom came through in a special way, bought for the teenage mothers and their famillies blankets and femine products, this was after consultations with them to understand what they needed most.
Looking for a lasting solution to the flooded floors: Polycom managed to hire a water pumped to pump out the water, then used water proof cement to repair 3 houses so the waster would not come out of the floors. We bought charcoal to make fire to warm the houses, for now the families are safe and looking up to the local government to improve the sanitation, this will bring a permanent solution. Our strategy has since become a reference point for interventions for floods in Kibera. We are still hoping to get more funding to repaired the 65 rooms in the area and to continue lobbying with the area administration and the County Disaster Response Team to come up with a permanent solution.
Feel free to support us and share with your friends.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
