Kisumu (formally Port Florence) is the third largest town in Kenya with an area of 417 square kilometres (157 square kilometres of water and 260 square kilometres of land); it is located on the Eastern shores of Lake Victoria and has a population of over 500,000 people. Over half of these people live in the slum settlements which have not been urbanized.

According to a report in 1999 (to view, please click here); Nyalenda Area "A" has 12,507 males and 11,224 females; totalling 23,731 individuals within a geographic area of 2.8 square kilometres and having a population density of 8,475 people per square kilometre. Nyalenda Area "B" has 13,162 males and 12,482 females; totalling 25,644 individuals within a geographical area of 6.1 square kilometres and having a population density of 4,204 people per square kilometre.

Walking through the narrow, filthy walkways that are crawl with criminals, hunger, disease, and seedy housing; the Nyalenda (Kisumu region) slums leave one pondering the policy frameworks in the nation of Kenya, questioning their ability to even take care of people living under such poor and unhygienic conditions. The area is composed of a multitude of crumbling mud-walled shanties; on whose verandas, you will meet men and women, young and old - even children - in a state of cheap, drug-induced hypnosis. Their dazed, rustic, blood-shot eyes reveal their momental attempt to escape from the surrounding hopelessness; giving an observer a glimpse into their journey through life's school of hard knocks. The children you meet within the areas' dark, narrow streets and alleys are shabbily dressed; with some walking naked and playfully swimming in mud - oblivious to what goes on around them. The congested tin-roof housing which lay along garbage heaps and streams of sewage; poses a grave health hazard to slum dwellers. Rows of open air chang'aa and busaa dens and distillers (cheap local breweries) line the terrain of Nyalenda slums in Kisumu city.

A common feature in the slum areas; "flying toilets" are a phenomena whereby the slum residents relieve themselves in polythene bags (due to the lack of a sewage system) and then throw the bags carelessly about the estates in the region. Criminal gangs have been known to operate stealthily within the slum, silencing perceived enemies and those who pose the threat of informing police about them. Police officers, who venture into the neighbourhoods, are not assured of security; as many have been assaulted and murdered, while others beaten and left to die. The slum crawls with lawlessness as if to say that it owns the country itself.

In light of this brief background of the city, we feel compelled to try to assist people within these slums; helping to alleviate the burden and aiming to provide "a new lease of life" to many disadvantaged individuals living on Kisumu's streets.

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