Living in an Urban Slum: The Places We Live

The Places we Live

This is a fascinating look at life in an urban slum. More than 1 billion people live in an urban slum and it is the fastest growing human habitat. The Places we Live is a wonderfully done visual experience telling the stories of people who live in such urban slums as Caracas, Venezuela: Mumbai, India: Jakarta, Indonesia, and Nairobi, Kenya. The highlighted slum in Nairobi is the Kibera slum. Four different households from the slum are presented in audio-visual stories. This site is certainly well-worth exploring and comes from a Museum Exhibition and book of the same name.

The year 2008 has witnessed a major shift in the way people across the world live: For the first time in human history more people live in cities than in rural areas. This triumph of the urban, however, does not entirely represent progress, as the number of people living in urban slums--often under abject conditions--will soon exceed one billion. From 2005 to 2007 Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen documented life in the slums of four different cities: Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India; Caracas, Venezuela; and Jakarta, Indonesia. His lyrical images capture the diversity of personal histories and outlooks found in these dense neighborhoods that, despite commonly held assumptions, are not simply places of poverty and misery. Of course, slum residents continuously face enormous challenges, such as the lack of health care, sanitation and electricity.

Driving through the Mathare Slum

The children love to say, "How are your?"
Driving through the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya.

The children of Mathare slum

The Mathare slum zigzags through Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya for seven miles. Over 500,000 people call this small piece of land home. The residents of the Mathare slum are among the poorest, most destitute people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the population, including children, have been affected by AIDS and/or HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis

Tour of Mathare Slum

This is a tour, led by youth from the community, of the Mathare neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya.

A Short Video showing the Mathare Valley Slums

Why Education?

This video shows a Canadian organization's work in sponsoring education in the Mathare Slums in Nairobi. This is not the organization that my trip is affiliated with, but I like how it shows the slums, the value of education, the sponsorship of "scholars" so they can attend boarding schools outside the slums, and how the scholars return to Mathare to improve the community. It also gives some information on how the Mathare slums began.