Street children are considered a nuisance by most inhabitants of Nairobi. Most of these children live in one of four or five slum areas of Nairobi in difficult and unhealthy living conditions. How to alleviate their lives from one of poverty to one of prosperity is a question asked by many and answered by few. Even fewer still attempt to solve the problem. One of the few attempting to solve the problem is thirty year old Pastor Lawrence Gitobu; pastor of the Methodist Church in Kibera.. The young Pastor lives in Kibera, one of the most violent and densely populated slums of Nairobi. Although not from Kibera ( he is from the northwestern province of Meru), Pastor Lawrence made a deliberate decision to live in Kibera rather then in one of the nearby suburb. A committed shepherd of his folk, Pastor Lawrence felt it better to live among the members of his congregation.

The Kibera Methodist Church, though small, serves its community in several ways. The church is situated in a fenced off compound. The compound is clean and well maintained. Sharing its concrete fence is a kiosk, brightly colored with a Coca-Cola ad. The kiosk is run by the Youth of the Kibera Methodist Church. They take turns in running the business and the profits are used to finance various activities such as sports tournaments and outreach. Inside the compound is a huge water tank. This is a project started by the women's group of the church. Availability of clean water is one of the primary predicaments facing residents of Kibera. The area lacks good drainage and plumbing. As a result residents of the slum must buy water for washing drinking and cooking. The women of the church sell the rain water collected in the water tank for this purpose.

Yet the most beneficial service offered by the church is its pre-primary school. With a capacity for sixty children, the preschool is the only of its kind in the area. Well equipped with good facilities, it provides an introduction to formal education to the little children of Kibera. This, Pastor Lawrence hopes, will give these children an advantage once in primary school, which in turn, will motivate them to remain in school rather than drop out as most slum area students do. The program has been in operation for only two years and its full benefits are yet to be seen. Pastor Lawrence keeps in touch with the first batch of young students to graduate from his institution hoping to watch them advance in their education and giving themselves a better chance in alleviating their current socio-economic status.

The school, although having a capacity for sixty has sponsorship for only forty children. It is therefore currently operating less than capacity. Scholarships allow these forty children to attend free of charge. They receive two meals (the average number of meals in Kibera is one), breakfast and lunch, while at school. Classes run from morning to mid afternoon during which time they draw, color, learn their ABC.

The children love school, Pastor Lawrence told me as we walked about in Kibera visiting members of the church and their children. "Pastor, Pastor!" the children would shout waving from where they were playing, running to join us on our tour. Its evident that the children not only love school but love their pastor as well! Pastor Lawrence swiftly switches from one vernacular language to another speaking to everyone in their mother tongue or in Swahili.

Pastor Lawrence Gitobu's vision is to expand the school into a primary school and increase the number of students. Nearly half of the population in Kibera are children. These children rarely attend pre-school. Moreover, they have a high drop out rate in school. They live a hard life they did not choose for themselves, yet how can they change their way of life? A proper education and positive attitude towards formal education is a fundamental beginning. Perhaps one school in Kibera will not eliminate street children all together, but it is a start and it will affect the lives of at least some children. As usual, all that is needed is funding. Meanwhile, Pastor Lawrence does his best to bring a little happiness and a lot of hope into the lives of children in Kibera.

October 1, 1999