March 14, 2006

Dear Friends,

I've recently returned from a three-week trip to Kenya, my eleventh trip as part of my ongoing project to document the lives of children growing up at the Good Samaritan Children's Home in Nairobi's Mathare slum.

I spent the bulk of this trip waiting for Chalo and Ochieng's results from their secondary school exams, which they took in November. The exams were to be released any time at the end of February, and the results determine the future of the boys' education. A "B+" guarantees a spot at a national university (with most expenses covered). A "C+" qualifies them for a spot at university, though many students need to attend a one or two year college before attending university and expenses are not covered. A "D+" is considered passing, and students can still go on to college, and if their grades are good enough continue to university, but this is relatively rare.

When I met Ochieng in 2001, he was sick in bed at the Good Samaritan Home. He had typhoid and nearly died. He wasn't missing school, though, because he had been forced to wait a year between primary and secondary school because Good Samaritan didn't have enough money to pay his school fess.

When he did go to secondary school the next year, he started doing very well and was near the top of his class. But because he because he was angry that he had to wait a year for school, and because he blamed his sickness on the conditions at Good Samaritan (though typhoid is relatively common throughout the slum), in his first year of high school Ochieng moved out of the orphanage and into a one-room house of a friend in Mathare. He only talked with Auntie, the woman who runs Good Samaritan, or dealt with Good Samaritan when absolutely necessary.

Living in Mathare is difficult. Houses are torn down by the government or angry landlords regularly, water shortages are common, and poor hygiene spreads diseases like typhoid. Ochieng's house was torn down twice while he was in high school. Water shortages kept him from bathing. Since he was not at Good Samaritan and had no money, he rarely ate enough each day. And he got sick every couple of months, so sick that he missed most of the second term and all of the third term of his last year in high school. (At least he claimed he was this sick, though many have doubts.)

Though Ochieng is very intelligent, as his difficulties accumulated and he had no adult supervision, his attendance at school dropped as did his grades. Good Samaritan tried to convince him to move back into the orphanage, but he refused.

Though he claimed he was studying at home most of the time he was sick, no one was expecting his exam results to be very good.

People at Good Samaritan expected more of Chalo, though. When I met him in 2001, he was finishing 8th grade and the teacher said he was one of the children they "had hopes in." He started at Eastliegh High School, near Mathare (the same school Ochieng was attending) the next year, and was doing very well.

But in December 2003, Auntie was trying to shift older children at Good Samaritan back to any extended family who might be able to help care for them. Chalo's uncle, though he couldn't take care of him, suggested Chalo go to a boarding school near him and Chalo's grandmother. At least that way, Chalo would have a connection with his extended family even if they couldn't help him.

Unfortunately, over the two years Chalo was at the boarding school, we learned that the school was not particularly academically rigorous (this is not uncommon for rural Kenyan boarding schools) and the teachers did not even finish the 4th-year syllabus. Chalo, without being pushed academically, spent much more time with his friends and in the drama club than studying.

And he received a C- on his exam.

The highest score in Chalo's school was a B, followed by two B-'s. These scores were received by students who had repeated one or two years of school. There were a few C+'s and C's, a fair number of C-'s, many D's and an E.

At Chalo's old high school, students who had been ranked below Chalo before he left did much better on the exams, including one boy who received a B+ and will be able to attend university.

In an environment of low teacher interest and low academic performance, Chalo became less motivated, and was simply given a worse education. But he was happy that he did as well as he did on the exam, as most of his classmates did worse. He was also glad that he was able to spend a few years out of Mathare and see that there is life outside of the slum.

Ochieng also received a C- on his exam.

Both Chalo and Ochieng are now faced with the very difficult challenge of being thrust into adulthood in Mathare. (Chalo moved into a friend's one-room house shortly after the exam.) Only occasionally they find work, working at a kiosk or painting a house or helping in construction, for one or two days earning perhaps a dollar or two.

Both want to attend college, but very few children from Good Samaritan ever do, as the orphanage can't even afford to pay for all their children to go to secondary school. Those who do attend college generally pay for at least half the cost (and generally have higher marks on their exams).

It's unclear what will happen to them now that they are on their own in Mathare. Ochieng has adapted better to the situation, and goes to look for work every day. But Chalo had given up looking for work, and watches TV at Good Samaritan most days. Perhaps now that he has his exam results he will try to look for work again – having passed secondary school does make him more employable than many Kenyans – but he will need to overcome his depression from being on his own in Mathare..

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Boss was recently made a permanent staff member at the printing press where he works. Until recently he was considered a trainee, and with this change comes a little more money and more job security.

He gives 1,000 shillings (about $14) to his 17-year old sister, Njambi, every month to help her with food for her baby Melissa.

Melissa will be a year old this month, and she is doing very well. But Njambi has now given up on her dream of going to high school. She has decided to take a one-year course in hair dressing (that's been made available through a donation to Good Samaritan) as soon as she can find someone to look after Melissa during the day. Good Samaritan has offered to care for the baby starting in January, but Njambi, much like Ochieng, rejects Auntie and doesn't want her help.

Right now, Njambi doesn't have any other ideas about who can watch the child, so her education is now on hold indefinitely.

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It was mid-term break from the first term of Lucy's third year in high school, and Auntie took her to visit her grandmother, several hours north of Nairobi. The land was barren as it had just received the first rain in over a year, and the grandmother and grandfather, as well as two younger cousins from an aunt who is a prostitute, were living on relief food.

Lucy's mother, who died of HIV/AIDS in July, was buried in one of the empty fields behind the one-room wooden house. While rearranging the rocks around the grave, Lucy told me that her grades had started getting better (at one point, she had been first in her class, but when her mother died her grades fell dramatically) and that she was committed to succeeding. She was doing it for her mother, she said, who had only finished one year of secondary school before her family ran out of money for school fees.

The determination in Lucy's voice when she told me that she will be successful in high school gives me hope that some children from Good Samaritan may be able to get out of Mathare.

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Currently, Good Samaritan has over 40 children in secondary school. But the 7 who finished 8th grade last year were unable to start secondary school this year because Good Samaritan could not raise enough money through donations or by selling pigs and milk to send additional children to school this year. You can help send some of these children to school by making a tax-deductible contribution to the Good Samaritan Education Fund. For information please visit www.orphansofmathare.com/howtohelp.html

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I'll be back in Kenya in May to continue to follow all of these stories.

I've now been working on this project for nearly three years, and I plan to continue to film the lives of these children – many now young adults – in Mathare for up to two more years. If you enjoy reading these emails and learning about life in the Mathare slum, please help support the Mathare Project by making a tax-deductible contribution. Documentary Educational Resources is the tax-exempt fiscal sponsor of the Mathare Project. Grants and tax-deductible donations can be made by writing a check to "Documentary Educational Resources" and putting "The Mathare Project" in the memo. Please mail checks to:

Cynthia Close
Documentary Educational Resources
101 Morse Street
Watertown, MA 02472-2554

Again, thank you so much for your continued interest and support.

All the Best,
Randy