Interesting school lessons in a Mathare school

Using discarded computer keyboards for hands-on instruction on letters and sounds.



Using discarded computer keyboards for a music lesson.

A Father's Wish

A Dad in the Mathare Slums of Nairobi tells his hopes for his children.

A Father's Wish from Adam & Matt Costanza on Vimeo.

From the movie Welcome to Mathare:

Adam and Matt Costanza shot footage in what the United Nations describes as the most brutal slum in Africa. Working with a local youth group called Mathare Roots, they captured never before seen footage of hope and struggle – all in 10 days on a $10,000 budget.

When you watch this film, you will be transported to Mathare, Kenya for 40 minutes. Witness how people live with only 8 sources of clean water for three quarters of a million people. Learn about the illegal alcohol called Changa’a, which has never been documented in such detail before. Changa’a underpins the fabric of life in Mathare. While this industry allows some families to eek out $2 a day in wages and send children to school, it is a fundamental source of brutality, strife, rape, and death.

Witness, too, the unlikely abundance of hope in Mathare. About half of the children here die before the age of 20, yet every child smiles and laughs as strong as any in the world.

The Mathare Slum in Nairobi, Kenya

Over one million people live in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya in an area of less than a square mile. Rivers of sewage run through the slum towns, carrying garbage and human waste. Most families crowd as many as 10 people into one-room huts made of scrap wood, corrugated tin, or mud without electricity, running water, or toilets. This is where I will be going in July.

photo from CMF Hope Fellowship (group we will be working with)