"Poverty, Energy, Joy, Love": Inside World's Largest Slum (PHOTOS)

 

 

Kenya - The Kibera slum in Nairobi is six hundred acres of mud and filth. It's not on any map because it's squatters camp - an illegal, forgotten city, yet at least one third of Nairobi lives here.
Over the years, the illegal slum has grown amongst the filth. Little businesses thrive with the inhabitants building and renting wooden shacks.The slum is can also be a dangerous and violent place.
The Kenyan Government has done nothing for Kibera. No title deeds, no sewage pipes, no roads. There are no services of any kind.
One American photographer recently traveled to Kibera to document a development project. Maureen Ruddy Burkhart describes her experience as a "journey of discovery; a discovery of virtue."
"With one eye I saw the ever-present poverty, lack of plumbing, and constant energy… and with the other eye I saw joy and love," she says. see pics down...

Father Dan balances his 5-month-old son, Dylan, on his hand.

Tea Party: One of the soap-sellers, Miss Loreto, hosted a tea party with her girls. Loreto is making traditional chapatis (friend bread) from scratch in her kitchen, which doubles as a bedroom. The lace fabric on the walls covers the corrugated metal sheeting. The girls are dressed in their Sunday best

Miss Helen: Helen is a soap-seller. Burkhart said she loves this picture of Helen because she appears to be the mistress of her environment

My Phone Takes Photos Too: While visiting Evinta's home (Helen is her mother), she mimicked Burkhart with Helen's cameraphone. Burkhart said she couldn't resist Evinta's O-shaped mouth mirroring the camera lens

Neighborhood Watch: In Kibera, everyone watches out for everyone else, including children watching out for other children

We Won! Schoolchildren celebrate their victory in a contest for best hygiene essay. Burkhart said she was impressed that they didn’t ask what prize they got for winning.

Wire Jump Rope: Kelly found a wire and taught Evinta how to jump rope. She proceeded to practice the entire afternoon without resting. Burkhart said she gave Evinta a real jump rope at the end of her time there.

Learning curve: At first, Burkhart found her greatest challenges to be technical - dark interiors, bright sunlight against dark skin - and it took her a few days to get the hang of things

Life in living color: She said she didn't intend at first to create a series in black and white, but after a few days it became clear color wouldn't work. "I see color as the 'great seducer,' sucking us in with its vibrancy."

Not a drop to drink: Kibera's water is piped in by private dealers, who lay their own hosepipes in the mud, and charge double what people pay for the same service outside the slum

Thanks for the memory: All the subjects she photographed were given a print. "For one mother, the print I gave her was the only one she had ever seen of her two young children, and she just could not stop staring at it," Burkhart recalled

Amenities: There's a shop and even a water pipeline with half a mile of tubing connected up to the city mains. The tap in the courtyard is a lucrative business