Dark side of Kenya's slums

National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 2004 by Angelo D'Agostino

* Your April 2 edition arrived here in Nairobi last week and since NCR is my only connection with the U.S. church scene, I avidly read the article by Robert Scalia on Kibera.

While it is undoubtedly true that he experienced Kibera as he reported, that's only half of the truth of Kibera. The other hall happens after sundown during the 12 hours of darkness--where another world prevails. An all-too-accurate documentary of that world was made by a volunteer at Nyumbani in 2000. It is shocking, alarming, dismaying, despairing to the extent that it has won (at last count) 14 national and international awards. In it, one is confronted with brutality (two teenagers burnt alive for stealing), prostitution (women who "worked" simply to feed their children), spurning, (stigmatization of AIDS patients), etc.

(Fr.) ANGELO D'AGOSTINO, S.J.

Nairobi, Kenya

D' Agostino is founder and medical director of Nyumbani, an organization that provides outreach to children affected by HIV/AIDS.