 Dagoretti Train Station |
Dagoretti is located about 20 kilometers southwest Nairobi, and only a few kilometers from Kibera, one of the largest slums in sub Sahara Africa. It is best know for its slaughterhouse industry, active street markets and the Dagoretti railroad station stop. |
With a population of 375,000, Dagoretti
often attracts the overflow migrant population of nearby Kibera, one of the largest slums in sub Sahara Africa.
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City of Kibera
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 Dagoretti Market Place |
The slaughterhouses provide minimal employment opportunity, with many residents seeking day labor jobs in the nearby towns of Karen and Nairobi. The community has no municipal infrastructure or electric utilities. Open canals and trenches, carrying waste from the slaughterhouses, characterize the town’s sanitation system. The average unemployment rate is 60%
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Dagoretti Residences
Structures in Dagoretti are randomly built with little open space, especially in and around the market. Residential units are typically small wooden structures, comprised of one or two rooms, and an earthen floor and tin roofs. Roads are very narrow and more like walking paths with large potholes.
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 Typical Home |
 Chokoraa
It is estimated that at least 15% of the population is HIV infected. By day, groups of chokoraa, or street children orphaned by AIDS, frequent the Dagoretti Market area foraging for food. By night, the kids band together near the train station for shelter. Empty glue bottles litter the landscape, as a reminder of a cheap high to dull the pain of existence. Without a family, there is literally no opportunity for these children to attend school or access community assistance. For the most part, they are a faceless generation of youth lost to poverty and disease.
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Village of Saigon
On the fringes of Dagoretti are smaller village enclaves that have distinctive, more communal type neighborhoods. Within walking distance of Dagoretti Market is the village of ‘Saigon”. Perched on the hilltop above the marketplace, this village exists on vegetable gardening, grazing and slaughtering of small animals and neighborhood bartering. Multi-generational families or tribe groups often live in small compounds behind metal gates or fences heavily laden with thick vegetation. Residential structures are set back from the road to hide the local breweries that dot the landscape. Needless to say, alcohol consumption here is high, further facilitating the spread of HIV.
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Dagoretti For Kids, “D4K”
Heading slightly north from the village square, there is a narrow dirt road that seemingly leads to nowhere. If you walk there as a “stranger”, young children will poke their heads out from behind the fences and whisper to their friends. If they recognize you, they will actually begin to follow. They know where you are going. …… and want to join you. A few hundred yards up to the left you will see a sign, “Dagoretti 4 Kids”. This is it.
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 Children of Saigon
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Step inside and you will find a rented cinderblock house on about an acre of land. A small oasis in a land of hardship. Founded and organized by James Mwaura and Michael Mungai (now a senior at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia), D4K is home to 10 -20 boys at a time that are totally committed to abandoning street life, pursuing an education and breaking the cycle of poverty.
D4K is 100% funded through the generosity of its partners and international student sponsorships. Please consider joining us and getting to know more about our organization and how you may get involved as we “raise” this African village, one boy’s future at a time. |
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