Perspectives of Eastleigh

It is another hot and sticky day amidst the grime and dust of Eastleigh. Looking across the community from the upper storey of a Sixth Street cinder block apartment building, we are

confronted by an all too common sight. The garbage and sewage below us are sadly a repeated scene throughout the neighbourhood. Although the city of Nairobi makes periodic assaults on the rising mounds of trash, we continue to see the unpaved streets fill with the reek and mess. Poor sanitation and unclean drinking water go hand in hand in much of the impoverished world. As part of our work with The Sharing Way (TSW) and the Eastleigh Community Centre (ECC) we are accessing the current health and wellness among the families of Iftin. These assessments will form a baseline of information that we will use, together with TSW and ECC, to measure the effectiveness of the projects and interventions of the next few years. While there are many priorities emerging from our field surveys, water tops the list. One immediate intervention, intended to begin in 2009, is the distribution of ceramic water filters and training on hygiene and clean water issues among about 120 vulnerable families. Through the generosity of many Canadian Churches and individuals, we will be providing Somali households clean drinking water. The filters are being made out of local materials by Eastleigh Pottery and have been certified by the Kenyan Health Authority. It is a simple but life saving intervention, especially for young children who are the most susceptible to water born diseases.

Beyond the task of assessment surveys and interviews, a great part of our work in Eastleigh is the privilege of spending time in the homes of our students. They are such gracious and welcoming hosts. We are often able to meet the elderly Mzees and Mamas; play with the young children who are both excited and terrified at the appearance of strange visitors; and hear the harrowing stories of their escapes from war and conflict that brought them to Kenya and eventually Eastleigh. Today was our last set of home visits in Eastleigh for 2008, and we had the joy of dropping in on several different families. One of the questions we always ask is this: "What gives you hope?" One of the mothers today looked back at us, as she thought over the question, and then to her three teenage daughters sitting next to her on the floor of their tiny apartment: "I would never have thought it possible," She said to us in Somali, "That my daughters would be in school. God is good. That is my hope!"