Kenya: city slum shares its story in Cyberspace

Korogocho, one of the worst of Nairobi's more than 200 informal settlements, is now on cyberspace. A website on the slum: www.korogocho.org - was launched by Comboni missionaries and the Catholic community there on Sunday. "On our web site you will find articles about life in slums, theses, comments, reflections, photos, projects, and letters from missionaries and young people living in Korogocho" Fr Daniele Moschetti said. He said the website aims to enlighten people on the reality of slum life. "The aim of this website is to get in touch and make friends with many wonderful people who work hard in similar slums all over the world. It's a means to make this dreadful reality known outside the slum, throughout the planet; but you will be also surprised by a reality full of energy and life." An estimated one billion people live in slums worldwide. "That is to say that one person out of six lives in a social reality where day by day he has to fight poverty and social alienation without any support both from the government or local authorities, and under the threat of being left homeless overnight," the Comboni missionary said. According to the latest survey carried out by United Nations settlement agency, Habitat, 70 per cent of African town-dwellers live in slums. Nairobi is an example of "social, economic and political apartheid," Fr Moschetti said. "The city has a population of four million inhabitants, but 2.5 million live in over 200 slums covering less than five per cent of the whole urban area. "The wild animals of the national park nearby have got much better living conditions than slum-dwellers," he said "Our network is open to all those who are sensitive to the cries of poor, sympathize with them, sharing our projects for better living conditions, but especially to those who are aware that such a journey, being a journey of life, will bring about a change of life for those in need as well as in those who support them." Source: CISA