Surviving The Streets Of Africa | Life In The Slums (Poverty Documentary) | TRACKS

[Music] kenya africa bernard moira is 17 years old all his life he's lived here in one of africa's biggest slums when he was just 13 overcrowding in his family forced bernard to leave home to fend for himself bernard is one of the lucky ones his mother found him a hut to live in life here is hard for everyone but for boys of bernard age and younger it's even tougher all through africa there are children like bernard forced through poverty and overcrowding to live on the streets some of them leave home as early as six years old they live rough often sleeping in shop doorways and rubbish skips to protect themselves against danger and loneliness the children form gangs a gang helps you survive berna did the same this is his gang [Music] kaze mufei john dambu boy kyoko and dowdy [Music] [Music] to work as best they can to make money for food and clothes although sometimes they even steal for [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] them [Music] bernard's gang live in mathari valley on the outskirts of kenya's capital city nairobi nobody is sure how many people live here perhaps a quarter of a million many of them have no papers or documents which makes it hard for them ever to move anywhere else [Music] all over africa there are tens of millions of people who have no homes often because of wars famine and drought they pour into the cities to look for work food and somewhere to live usually their journey ends here in one of these huge shanty towns most of the people living here are squatters they live in huts of wood or cardboard that have been illegally built on land they don't own but they still have to pay rent these huts have no running water or electricity or extra rooms and the things we take for granted have a high price water has to be paid for so does medicine charcoal for cooking and fuel for kerosene lamps [Music] if you're poor and don't have a job it's hard to know how to make money to pay for these things the people here make their living as best they can [Music] for the children of the slums life is even harder children are often the victims of disease and many don't even make it to bernard's age my mother checked me out because she could not afford to take care of all of us you see we are a big family we were 14 children but two died some of us are pretty small [Music] in the mornings the smaller boys from the gang kaze muthay muangi and kumani leave the hut early they go to scavenge in the rubbish dumps for food scraps metal and waste paper not returning home until the evening [Music] bernard leaves for the city center [Music] [Applause] you can get money for all sorts of things here bottle tops pieces of cardboard and charcoal the boys sell the charcoal back to the merchants kaze says how much they get depends on the charcoal merchant's mood they might get only one shilling for a bag just 4p in english money but if they're lucky it might be as much as 16p the boys won't go into another gang's territory because they might get beaten up [Music] this boy john danbu is a member of bernard's gang who earns some money looking after a neighbor's sheep in return for taking the sheep to graze each day and collecting scraps of food for them john sometimes sleeps at the old man's hut when burners is overcrowded [Music] the main problems living on your own are foods and clothes you cannot go and ask for a job if you are dirty you won't get it people will call you a thief there used to be fights because school children used to throw stones at us and insult us by calling us names saying we were thieves because we don't go to school but when you are many you can help each other the younger boys in the gang spend nearly all their time scavenging for food being hungry is their main problem even when they get food it's often old leftovers or just not the right kind for growing children once a week the gang walk to the other side of nairobi to a rich suburb where a wealthy businessman has given money to the woman who owns this food kiosk to give poor boys something to eat and drink the boys call him their good samaritan although they've never met him here they get their weekly ration of half a loaf of bread and something to drink they will go home via the local market to get some leftover vegetables or fruit and almost certainly won't eat again that day there i ate in my gang at the moment the largest group i ever had living in my house was 18. i would take anybody in except boys who sniffed blue or boys whose fathers have money i only help poor boys we can tell by the way they dress they don't have any money this is the main market in nairobi city center these street children are trying to earn some money as parking boys helping motorists to find spaces to park or carrying shopping to people's cars these boys also come from the slums some years ago a special society was started to help the parking boys giving them somewhere to sleep cook a meal and sometimes reuniting them with their families the society is called undo and its work here was started by this man father arnold groll today he's called nairobi's oldest parking boy a dutchman he first came to africa more than 30 years ago father growl and the undugu society started working among the unemployed youth of nairobi then father graham was asked to help the parking boys and undugu's work expanded to help all the people living in the slums undugu is the swahili word for brotherhood and [Music] solidarity in father groll's church on the edge of mathari valley his congregation know what it is to be hungry for much of the time so his sunday sermon of how jesus fed 5 000 people with five loaves and two fishes is much appreciated and understood [Applause] [Applause] [Music] some of the street children told father growl they wanted to learn to read and write because it's only through education they can escape their poverty although schooling is free in kenya books and uniforms have to be paid for which would be impossible for the poor people of the shantytowns together with the ministry of education andugu started slum schools with studies especially suited to the children's needs sometimes street children find it hard to adjust to school disciplines after the freedom of the streets [Music] [Applause] me he's found himself a job as an apprentice motor mechanic to become an apprentice in kenya you have to find a fundi or teacher to train you the fundi has to be paid so bernard went to undugu to ask them to help him pay his teacher now he works from monday to friday at the garage with his fundi and on saturdays he comes to the undo workshop to study for the exam he will have to take after a year [Music] usually the garage gives me five shillings each day i use two shillings 50 for lunch and two shillings 50 for the bus fare back home but it depends how much work there is because there are a lot of us working at the garage sometimes we are only given two shillings to the smart product it goes to earth so if you know motor mechanics you can get work at a big company the big thing is you can learn to drive a car to store the current from there although his apprenticeship means bernard has the chance of a future job it also means one pair of hands less to collect the scrap metals or charcoal which the gang sell to make money for food the mobile cinema it comes to mathari valley once a month and it's free for the people of mathari with no electricity or tv and some of them unable to read or write it's very popular this is where the gang first got together the first time we met was at the cinema at night it was raining the boys asked where they could sleep so i said they could sleep here for one night then gradually we became friends and started living together [Music] we lived together because we help each other i help the others by giving them a place to sleep we all help each other when we are in trouble if you are alone you don't know what to do because there are all kinds of gangs here you need a gang to live in having a gang can also mean problems today there's a particularly difficult one hello bernard how are you bernard's best friend samwell has been arrested for stealing some clothes bernard goes to father groll for help oh so you want to talk about samuel yes what has happened to samuel he was in jail was he in jail again yeah and why it's not the first time samwell has been in trouble with the police but why does he still close if he would have come to me i could have talked to him father growl goes to the police to find out what has happened to samwell he has stolen samuel he has to go to the barcelona for three years so i have promised to give him a good education and then once he does a trade like mechanics or captain after he comes out of prison we are going to help him is that okay yes he goes to boston he goes to the barcelo he can't he he's children i i can't always defend people who steal so but we will help him in the parcel and when he comes out it was you and myself we are going to help him is that okay yes he goes there to stay in audrey for three years and then he gets education in carpentry or masonry and he makes trade tests and then when he comes out of it we will help and samwell's arrest was not burner's only problem that day another boy recently out of prison and hearing the gang were being filmed assumed they were being paid a lot of money he told bernard he wanted half of everything they earned that week bernard told us he was worried about going back to his hut that night and went to visit his family instead when he got there he found his mother had been taken ill my mother is sick at the moment so if i go to work there is nobody to visit her i like my family very much even though i don't live with them you know when you are on your own nobody tells you what to do but there are problems since my mother gave me the house she has not done any repairs we do those their smaller kids bring peppers and cardboards from their rubbish heaps but it leaks when it rains if my mother dies there would be many problems because of my smaller brothers and sisters happily benner's mother did not die father groll helped her to get to hospital and she's now better night time in mathari valley although it looks exciting it can be dangerous there's a lot of drunkenness and people get attacked the smaller boys keep away from the main roads and take the narrow back alleys home to the hut they usually lock themselves in at 10 o'clock [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign rather than spend precious pennies on water they use the foundations of an unfinished building that are filled with rainwater [Applause] [Music] one of the big men in mathari is a brewer he's given the gang some work bringing firewood to the river to help make changar changai is a very strong drink made from sugarcane people because it's against the law it's usually made at night the boys don't drink it but some have been known to sniff blue or petrol is unhappy because he's heard that kazae has been sniffing glue he's frightened that kazae will get ill and says it is another boy bernard tells him he's also seen him smoking marijuana says he doesn't know what it is and then that he's stopped bernard says that kaze doesn't want to listen and will only stop when he feels like it that they have been telling lies about him bernard doesn't believe him he can smell the glue on him he tells gaze if he gets sick he won't be able to look after him and that he once knew a boy who died from sniffing glue gang leader has brought many responsibilities his mother's illness samwell's arrest and his argument with kaze are things a parent would normally cope with but they're still not the main thing on his mind the first thing in his mind is food [Music] and clothes today he has not yet eaten for instance in a little while bernard will be taking his mechanics exam and will start work how does he plan the future she needs a hammer he says the only thing that is matters that he gets a house where he can live well with his wife and children and how many children you want now football teams uh the constant struggle to survive can be disheartening father growl understands that it's easy for the gang to get depressed sometimes he arranges a street party for them together with another gang [Music] bernard and the boys are just like children everywhere and enjoy the opportunity to meet new friends have some fun and play together but the everyday difficulties the gang have to face will still be there tomorrow [Music] i know you are so nice [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

Views: 197,069

Keywords: African Poverty, African community, African culture, African documentaries, African gangs, African poverty, Children at Risk, Developing Nations, Inspiring Youth Stories, Positive Change Initiatives, TRACKS - Travel Documentaries, Third World Problems, Youth Crisis in Africa, children in poverty, human resilience, impoverished families, impoverished youth, life struggles, poverty challenges, poverty epidemic, underprivileged children

Id: r6dmA8fq2LE

Length: 24min 35sec (1475 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021