The life of a young single mother in the poor slum
The day starts early at sunrise, about 5:30 a.m. A first
take is to provide water for the family, which means you got to have some money
to purchase it. Then clothes, mostly from the children, have to be washed.
Breakfast is prepared on the previous day with the using coals; because
paraffin is costly In this way, the children can get ready themselves. They
drink tea without milk in the morning, they do not get any lunch. Its size and
frequency depends on the money we earn.
The first tea is served at 10 a.m. afterwards; we look for additional jobs such as washing clothes, cleaning etc. If we find one, it will occupy us until 5pm if one is lucky.
Sleeping hour is from 9 p.m. after simple dinner or no dinner. Most people go to bed early due to lack of light or paraffin to use at home.
Money is needed not only for food (about 300 kenya shillings), the house rent (about 1500 Ksh) and electricity (about 300 Ksh per month). We also need to pay the public toilets and showers of Kibera (50 Ksh). The education is quite expensive for us: A primary private school costs about 3000 Ksh per term (according to the age of the child). In addition we have to pay for the lunch, the tuition, the uniforms, the books, the exams etc. Private schools have the advantage of small classes, only about 35 pupils per class. In public schools we pay about 500 Ksh but therefore the teachers cannot attend the 80 or so pupils as they should.
We also need to consider the costs of illnesses (medecine, hospital) such as pneumonia, malaria, ulcels etc. If someone get a new born, we support her
The challenges we find in the slum
The first tea is served at 10 a.m. afterwards; we look for additional jobs such as washing clothes, cleaning etc. If we find one, it will occupy us until 5pm if one is lucky.
Sleeping hour is from 9 p.m. after simple dinner or no dinner. Most people go to bed early due to lack of light or paraffin to use at home.
Money is needed not only for food (about 300 kenya shillings), the house rent (about 1500 Ksh) and electricity (about 300 Ksh per month). We also need to pay the public toilets and showers of Kibera (50 Ksh). The education is quite expensive for us: A primary private school costs about 3000 Ksh per term (according to the age of the child). In addition we have to pay for the lunch, the tuition, the uniforms, the books, the exams etc. Private schools have the advantage of small classes, only about 35 pupils per class. In public schools we pay about 500 Ksh but therefore the teachers cannot attend the 80 or so pupils as they should.
We also need to consider the costs of illnesses (medecine, hospital) such as pneumonia, malaria, ulcels etc. If someone get a new born, we support her
The challenges we find in the slum
The place is always crowded with thugs, rapist and all sort
of people we are never sure of the safety of our children when they are out.
The local brews are everywhere and dangerous for both of us
and the young ones, lots of the noise from the nearby clubs
Uncontrolled sewage system which some time gets into our
homes affects us even during sleep
Lack of job opportunities
Lack of clean water and access to electricity
Lack of school fee for our young one
Lack of enough resources to help other young mums within the
poor slum
With the much inflation life has become imanagable for many
of us
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