Everyday cultures of young people in Korogocho, Nairobi, Kenya

The following photographs were taken as part of the research project "Learning to reflect about space and place using the example of everyday cultures of young people in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya", which Andreas Eberth carried out in the Department of Geography Education at the Leibniz Universität Hannover's Institute for Science Education.

"Promote the youth the condoms and demonstrate how to use it. That they can use them and protect themselves. That is a solution facing health.“

„In our group we come together, we train the youth. We are about the sex. We have some condoms here. Our members [...] know how to handle it."

„The main aim of Githurai Sports was to uplift youth’s potential through sports. [...] Still, in sports we have our team playing on county level. [...] Through sports, we do that education. We do learning while doing sports.“

"We are an important group because we are dealing with the environment. Our group was formed back in 2005. The main activity of our group is environmental conservation."

"As members of the group, we were realizing how community members were suffering. So we tried to come together to discuss the issues and decided to form a group: a women self help group.“

„Thereby we see the fact of our art work. It is just a skill through which you can be educated."

"We come up with those things of cleaning. Like initially Korogocho was very dirty. But nowadays it is very clean because we are taking care on the environment.“

"It has helped the communtiy. Especially the youths, they are busy now, they are engaged. (...) We have so many students coming here for getting the skills, you can’t even count."

„We have so many group members who are employed nowadays. That’s a great success because we gave them computer skills and ICT-trainings. We also give them some life skills...

"And when you are together you can use your potentials. We try to do our best to engage and educate those young girls and boys...

"We bring the young people into the group and we see what is inside them first, their talents...

"For now we are producing CDs and sell them. CDs with rap music in Kiswahili. We do this on our own. We write the text about what is happening in the society, about what’s going on. It is art and creativity...

„You see, when you go through this roads, when you pass this roads you can see so many children. Some of them run away from their homes and live in the streets as street children. We want to collect them, to educate them and to create a home for them. For that we are working. We also organize football matches for the kids and educate them via our acting...

"Korogocho is our place. Our place which is cheap where we can afford most of the things and where we are enjoying playing football. We are trying to make our environment clean. So we can improve our income with selling water. And even Korogocho can become improved if me and other community members are working together we can realize a change.“

„Right now what you see is our water kiosk. We have this big tank and are selling water to community members for two Shillings. The problem is, as you see, another tank is there, another one is there, there are so many. We are being together, that’s good for us...

"You can find many things here in Korogocho, that is an important advantage of staying here. Like you have a market and several food which is sold for cheap prices...

„We are processing maize and selling it to the community. So we as young people are doing like a service, we finish the maize for consumption. We are 18 people and working in several times during a day. With selling the maize we can earn an income for our group members...

„My vision for Korogocho is that it should become a safe place free from crime and drugs. A safe place for mothers and fathers that they can walk without being mugged. This is a challenge for all of us...

„We are operating in this shipping container as our building. We have different programmes on health, youth and children, on environment. The youth are listening to our radio, especially they do like reaggae music...

"I was in a city in Holland, Tilburg, the people there don’t even know who is living in the next house. But in Korogocho we know eachother, we live like in a community. And for this community that radio was created to have a platform for discussing the issues they are interested in and giving important information for the community members...

„In our leisure time we like football most and someones like boxing. You see this on that other pictures. Sports are important in our lifes during the times when we are not engaged in the group activities.“

„Our group is facing several activities. We are doing garbage collection as main acitvity. That’s why we decided to show this issue in the picture. But not as a company, so we are not like employed.“

„When we started the group we wanted to upgrade the conditions for the community. The group is necessary so that we can assist eachother. Because we don’t have good toilets in Korogocho we were thinking of starting up this water and sanitation project with the youth group. ..."

"The social activities and the economics are important because most people in the slums earn low incomes. So, they depend on one another, while in an estate it is your house and your house and your house – and your bed. But these people in Korogocho are operating below a Dollar per day. Can you imagine that per day somebody needs 20 Shillings. So he goes and borrows it. That kind of life is it. People are extremely social.“

„What I am trying to say, slums bring people up very different. The reasons are how they are broght up. For example they share everything, you see, you share the toilet, you share the water tub, you share schools, you share business places around, everything. Even house issues. You share even your bed."

„I have taken a few pictures. Because, you see, we also have people who are talented on different scales. We have footballs, drama groups, poetry, music – those are things special for this place. This is a kind of youth culture of Korogocho."

"In our leisure time we like football most. Sports are important in our lives during the times when we are not engaged in the group activities.“

"Sports are important in our lives during the times when we are not engaged in the group activities.“

Sponsors and responsible persons

A project of Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute for Science Education, Geography Education.

The project is supported by Engagement Global with funds from the BMZ and was developed as part of the country initiatives to implement the Curriculum Framework Education for Sustainable Development. Leibniz Universität Hannover is solely responsible for the content. The content does not reflect the views of the BMZ.