THE CHALLENGES
The Challenges of growing up in Mathare
Mathare slum, located in East Nairobi, is home to over 850,000 people in an area measuring roughly 3.5 square miles.
With an average income of well below 2€ per day, many struggle to provide food and basic needs for children.
Many children live in single parent households or are orphans living with extended family.
Like many informal settlements, Mathare is characterized by unsafe and overcrowded housing, elevated exposure to environmental hazards, high prevalence of communicable diseases, and a lack of access to essential services, such as sanitation, water, electricity, sewage and paved road.
Large portion of the school age population does not have adequate access to educational opportunities. Although public primary schooling has technically been free since 2003, parents with children in public school reported paying up to 100 € per kid for a year. Many poor families cannot cover such expenses.
Therefore, during the school day, children and teens from Mathare are often seen idle, playing outside or wandering the streets , which makes them highly vulnerable to gang recruitment, trafficking, prostitution, involvement in drugs and alcohol, crime and rape at an early age.
Our Story
Roots institute Centre was started with an aim of helping the less fortunate kids in the slum. It started with Seven Kids and later grew to more than Three hundred plus kids.