Mwelu!

Today was quite exciting… exhilarating… even dangerous by some measures. I had a meeting with Alex (a friend of Sanyu's), who is a program manager and photographer with the Mwelu Foundation. He picked me at Westgate on his motorcycle and we drove to Mathare, where the organization is located. Cool right! Luckily, he came with a helmet and ensured that he was a safe driver. So it was okay to hop on. 

The Mwelu Foundation is a registered trust which focuses on building youth in Mathare through the creative arts. It is a wonderful organization in that their youth are able to work together to write scripts, film their own movies and snap shots within and about their own communities. The youth have even launched several photography projects; one in which their photographs of women in the community were featured on matatus serving as a form of awareness for International Women's Day. 

Overview of Mathare Valley

The organization was founded by Julius Mwelu who was born and raised in Mathare and found a way to give back his skills and talents to the youth from his neighborhood.  Mathare, like Kibera is a densely populated neighborhood or collection of slums (I don't actually like that term. It's a bit derogatory, don't you think!?) located within the city limits of Nairobi.

Anyway, we met with Rachel and had a great discussion on opportunities for our youth to collaborate on some activities. The challenge we will have, however, is TWO Hands students come in June, (their summer break), and much of the Mwelu activities occur in August, when Kenyan students are on their winter break. There are other things we could do…. but I will conduct an intense brainstorm to find out what ways we could come together, if not… as Alex says, “the world does not revolve around Mwelu”. Lol! This being true, the organization is just so cool. And would offer an interesting type of service activity for the participants. We shall see, and I will get back to you on this. 

Here is an interesting photo:

Studying by Candlelight. 

Photographed by Stephen Otieno

February 2009.