Thirteen members of Kare4Kenya – a non-profit non-governmental development organisation based in Malta that works to help Kenyan children – will be spending the month of August in Kawangware – a slum area on the western outskirts of Nairobi in Kenya – to work closely with Kenyan children and their families. Kare4Kenya will focus on supporting over 90 children in Kawangware with ongoing assessment and monitoring for improvement

Kare4Kenya will be organising three major summer-school projects: (1) a summer school activity for children including arts and crafts; (2) teach the parents how to do crochet from plastic bags and (3) a media education programme for youths and children to develop media products such as documentaries.

Kawangware is a densely populated slum situated 12km west of Nairobi. The term ‘slum’ is used to describe Kawangware because the area is so destitute. The living conditions are extremely poor. The streets are no more than alleys and there is raw sewage everywhere. Scores of children run barefoot on the dirt road and play in mud streets where disease and animals mix. There is no garbage pickup, no indoor plumbing or running water. Large families live in one-room shacks. They have little to eat; they lack sanitation and feel constantly insecure.

The Kare4kenya team – the largest ever group of Kare4Kenya going to Kawangware – will leave Malta on Tuesday and return on 1 September. The group going to Kawangware is made up of Christine Grixti, Alison Farrugia, Clayton Balzan, Abigail Azzopardi, Daniela Grech, Denise Ciappara, Kira Cutajar, Mary Cutajar, Ryan Bugeja, Keith Cassar, Louis Debono, Brandon Pisani and Sylvana Zammit – all active members of Kare4Kenya. Other helpers include Leah Gatt, Solange Kimamo and Sylvana Debono.