|
Media Statement, 22nd January 2007
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson will get a first hand look at one of Africa’s urban nightmares when she visits Nairobi’s Makuru slum tomorrow (Tuesday).
However at GOAL’s Community Children’s Education Centre (CCEC), the former UN human rights commissioner will see how innovative and dynamic humanitarian work can give hope to people in the most demanding of settings.
Mrs Robinson will see how GOAL’s peer education programme helps stem the tide of HIV-AIDS among Nairobi’s young, before meeting vulnerable teenage mothers who have received basic skills education at the CCEC.
In a city of contrasts, wealth sits side-by-side with poverty and squalor. Despite being a gateway to Africa for millions of western tourists, Nairobi is home to some of the world’s largest slums, with hundreds of thousands of tin-shack dwellers crammed into a few square miles without effective sanitation or clean water.
Up to 60,000 children in Nairobi suffer from the worst forms of violation - physical harm, denial of basic needs and child labour. GOAL’s street children’s programme in Nairobi provides rescue and emergency services for those in urgent need of care and protection in slums. The programme has six components: HIV/AIDS Education, Community Children’s Education Centre, a rescue centre catering for 60 children per night, a Vocational Skills Training Centre, a mobile health clinic and a mobile education unit.
Nairobi contacts:
Ray Jordan, GOAL Emergency Co-ordinator – 087 9173101
Lainie Thomas, GOAL Kenya Country Director – 00254 721 240387
|
