Sisi Ni Mashujaa

Kibera means woods and before in the XX century it was a field near Nairobi. The first impact is overwhelming: stench, stagnant water, plastic mountains, animals eating from the trash, houses made up by enticing you can imagine, trenches but most of all mud.

Once you overcome the impact, you discover a totally different universe. A cohesive community, creative and alive. With so much force within it, that looks at life with their eyes quite open, teaching the young that spirit of survival that we haven’t seen elsewhere.
The best way to describe Kibera is by describing the children’s smiles and the way the shout «MZUNGU, MUZUNGU» (white man in Swahili) every time they see you.

The Leso or Khanga is a type of cloth that women use in all of the east of Africa. Within its print, there is always a text that sends a message that accompanies you day by day. Women choose the fabric because of its colors, but especially because of the message.

There was not a better tribute to all of Kibera´s inhabitants than to dress up AMREF´s hospital with this leso that says SISI NI MASHUJAA, witch means WE ARE HEROES in Swahili.

We have worked over the 6 containers from AMREF hospital at the Laini Saba ground. The only kind of «Open Park” at the township. A space of 2.500m/2 in witch every day thousands of people walk passing through or to play football or turning into a market or the play ground of the three schools that are near it. 
It is the greatest witness of the life in Kibera and probably the only public space that could be called square.