The poorest people. The largest slums in the world - Dharavi, Mumbai

Modern megacities are crowded with people, many of whom are forced to put up with poor ecology, cramped living space, remoteness from their place of work and an unfavorable social situation.
However, if the journey to the office takes more than two hours, and there are no treadmills and parks near your house, you should not be so upset, after all, you are lucky - there are many places in the world where living is not only inconvenient, but very dangerous. Here are some areas whose conditions are completely unsuitable for normal life.
1. Cité Soleil District, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
The "City of the Sun" (this is how the name of the district is translated) is located on the outskirts of the capital of Haiti, the city of Port-au-Prince. Most of the buildings are slums and huts, in Cité Soleil poverty reigns and crime flourishes. The streets are drowning in mountains of sewage and garbage, there is no sewerage here, so the area has long become a hotbed of dangerous diseases and viruses - the average life expectancy here does not exceed 50 years.


The police try not to show up in Cite Soleil, so drug dealers and kidnappers run everything there. According to representatives of the Red Cross, the slums of the "City of the Sun" are the quintessence of all Haitian problems: rampant unemployment, low level of education, lack of public organizations and services, unsanitary conditions, rampant crime and armed violence - all this can be found in almost every corner of the archipelago , however, it is in one of the districts of the capital that it manifests itself most clearly.
In an attempt to restore order in the slums, the UN in 2004 decided to introduce a limited military contingent into the Cité Soleil territory, the peacekeepers managed to largely defuse the situation, but some problems remained. For some time, the UN maintained control over the area, but after the devastating earthquake of 2010, riots flared up with renewed vigor. Three thousand suicide bombers managed to escape on the sly from a prison located near Cité Soleil, and at present, gangs of armed scumbags still inspire fear in the peaceful local population.
2. Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


Rio, which is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, is incredibly beautiful. Thousands of tourists come here to admire the statue of Christ the Redeemer, take part in colorful carnivals and sunbathe on the beaches of Copacabana. However, the city has another face, almost unfamiliar to idle tourists who love the Brazilian sun and cool mojitos: on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, there are vast favelas - disadvantaged areas, consisting mainly of squalid shacks and huts.


The notorious favela of Rocinha has long been a staging post for drug dealers who bring cocaine to Europe, and the close cooperation between corrupt government and the underworld has led to gang leaders here feeling at ease, living in abundance and even luxury.

Erismar Rodriguez Moreira
Until recently, one of the most notorious and famous drug lords in Rio was Erismar Rodriguez Moreira, nicknamed Bem-Te-Vi (Bem-Te-Vi is an insectivorous bird found in Brazil). His accomplices committed many brutal murders, and Moreira's group was also known for the fact that its members had a passion for gold-plated firearms. In 2005, the intelligence services carried out a carefully designed operation to detain members of the gang, but as a result of the ensuing shootout, Moreira was killed.
In the run-up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the city's authorities are working hard to improve the environment in the favelas, and some positive changes have already taken place.
3. Detroit, Michigan, USA


Detroit, once the center of the automobile industry in the United States, is going through hard times. It once bore the proud nickname of the "City of Motors", but now the streets and factories have fallen into disrepair: due to the reduction in production since 2000, about 25% of the population has left Detroit, many are selling their homes for pennies and leaving in search of a better life. . Stray dogs breed in abandoned dwellings - this is one of the main problems of Detroit. Tens of thousands of dogs, most of which are pit bulls, roam the streets, threatening all living things.


On July 19, 2013, the Detroit administration declared bankruptcy of the city and $19 billion in debt. services. According to the FBI and the US Department of Justice, three areas of Detroit are on the list of the most criminal areas in the country.
4. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico


The city, located in the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, has become a battleground between drug cartels and various criminal gangs in recent decades. In 2009, Ciudad Juarez came out on top in the number of murders per capita - the level reached 130 violent deaths per 100,000 people. And this is only official statistics - in fact, the number of those killed is somewhat higher, since a significant part of them are buried in mass graves, and people are listed as missing.
Life in the city is especially dangerous for women: rape is quite common here, and in the last 20 years alone, hundreds of women have died in such incidents.
5. Medellin, Colombia


In the 1980s, during the time of the cartels of Pablo Escobar and his squads, Medellin was the most violent city in the world - human life here was a mere bargaining chip in the transactions of local "businessmen". In 1993, Escobar was killed with police resistance, and the crime rate decreased slightly: if in 1991 there were about 6,500 murders, then in 2009, 2,899 people became victims of bandits.

Pablo Escobar
In addition to banal murders and robberies, other common "vacancies" at the local "labor exchange" are blackmail and kidnappings, which, however, do not differ too much from the first and second methods. As a rule, the scheme is quite simple: a group of armed people simply surrounds the tourist and offers to go to the ATM to withdraw the ransom from the credit card, otherwise threatening to take the victim away in an unknown direction.
Recently, due to the enmity between the two criminal gangs, the situation in the city has deteriorated significantly.
6. Brownsville area, Brooklyn, USA


Brooklyn, like the rest of New York City, has its underprivileged neighborhoods, but Brownsville stands out from the rest. Most of it consists of apartment buildings where people with low incomes live. Due to the tense social environment in Brownsville, the crime rate is much higher than the average for the city.


Most of the crime in the area is related to the drug trade. Sure, Brownville is a lot quieter now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s, but many trucking companies still only send their vehicles here with armed guards. Poverty and lack of work have led some young people to literally punch their way to success with their fists, it is no coincidence that many famous boxers grew up in Brownsville, including Mike Tyson.
7. La Perla District, San Juan, Puerto Rico


The outskirts of the city of San Juan, now known as La Perla, were once inhabited mainly by butchers - there were slaughterhouses and butcher shops on every corner. Now the slums have been chosen by the South American mafia, which uses them as a transshipment base when sending contraband and drugs to the United States.
Despite the extreme poverty of the locals, La Perla is quite beautiful with its beaches, colorful houses and wonderful nature. In recent years, Puerto Rico's drug cartels have become the object of close attention of law enforcement and intelligence agencies - every year there are hundreds of arrests of people involved in the drug business.
8. Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan


After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many fraternal republics had a hard time: production and the economy as a whole fell into decay, and in addition, many social contradictions aggravated. In some regions, tension has reached an extremely high level, such as in the Fergana Valley, which is located in three former socialist republics at once - Tajik, Uzbek and Kyrgyz.
The depression between the two mountain ranges became a real cauldron in which several nationalities "boiled", and each of them, after the collapse of the USSR, actively defended their rights, including not in the most legal ways. The radical Islamic beliefs of some groups of the population and the sharp decline in living standards only added fuel to the fire: thousands of refugees fled from Fergana, unable to find their place in the changed political and social circumstances.
Even 20 years later, the Ferghana Valley remains a battlefield between ethnic groups and the authorities. For example, on May 13, 2005, according to official figures, 187 people died in clashes between law enforcement agencies and protesters against trials of members of criminal gangs. However, other sources report more than a thousand killed - presumably, many bodies were buried secretly to hide the true extent of the tragedy.
9. Kibera District, Nairobi, Kenya


Nairobi was founded by the British as the headquarters of the railway, and soon the city became one of the centers of the African continent and remains so to this day. Despite the large number of Europeans and tourists in Nairobi, in some areas it is better for whites, like local residents, not to appear, one of these criminal ghettos is Kibera.


The administration of Nairobi prefers not to interfere in the life of the inhabitants of the area, as a result of which Kibera has become a haven for various thugs and scammers, for example, electricity is not available to everyone, because attackers use most of it for their own purposes. There is no water supply and sewerage system, most of the water is contaminated with typhoid and cholera bacteria, and the toilets are pits that serve as latrines for hundreds of residents.
About half of the able-bodied inhabitants of Kibera are unemployed, many women try to earn a living by prostitution, they are not stopped even by the growing number of sexual crimes from year to year.
10. Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, China


Kowloon served the Chinese as a military fort for many years, and at the end of the 19th century, when the British rented Hong Kong, the settlement became largely autonomous, the residents were actually granted the right to self-government. During the period of the Japanese occupation of China, the population of the walled city increased significantly, and as of 1987, it was approximately 33 thousand people, despite the fact that they all lived on an area of ​​about 0.026 km².


For many years, Kowloon was the real headquarters of the Triad, the most powerful Chinese crime syndicate, but the authorities turned a blind eye to this, because not only Chinese mafiosi, but also corrupt officials received considerable benefits from the existence of brothels, casinos and opium dens.


In the early 1990s, China finally decided to tackle this problem in earnest: the inhabitants of Kowloon were relocated to more prosperous areas, the slums were razed to the ground, preserving only a few historical buildings, and in 1995, a park of the same name was opened on the site of Kowloon.

Someone bathes in luxury, and someone has to dig in the garbage heaps. Such is the world and such is the distribution of wealth in it. For some, everything, and for others, nothing. Unfortunately, not enough for everyone. The people of the "golden billion" simply cannot imagine how terrible and incredibly poor a person's life can be in third world countries, where $ 1 a day is serious money. The Guardian published a series of photographs "The Poorest Man in the World".

1. 4-year-old girl Ana-Maria Tudor in Bucharest. Her house is going to be demolished and her family thrown out into the street. The girl's father is sick, he needs constant expensive medicines. There is no sewerage or running water. Soon there will be no roof over your head. Toilet chairs like those that you can see at the link https://ukrmedshop.ua/reabilitaciya/tualet/tualetnye-stulya are not used here at all.

2. 70-year-old old women from Bolivia eat only potatoes ... And they also sell only potatoes.

3. People in New Delhi walk past 13-year-old blind girl Hunula Begum and 10-year-old boy Nizamudin. Their father died a long time ago, and their mother suffers from asthma and cannot work. Their whole life is begging ... And it is unlikely that something will change in the future.

4. Fai Fanna lost his leg in 1988 on a mine. Today he is 60 years old and has 11 children. They want to demolish his house and drive his family out into the street.

5. India again, slums again. The girl is 2 years old. Her name is Sangita, she eats little... The girl is periodically rented out to beggars.

6. 5 brothers from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. They used to live on the street. Now at the shelter.

7. Jestina Koko is 25 years old and has a 5-year-old daughter, Sattoya. She begs and washes clothes. The girl has been disabled since childhood… They sleep in the corridor of the house, where there is no water and electricity.

8. 9-year-old Alvaro Kalancha Kisle lost his father and is now engaged in livestock. However, he goes to school. For a year, his family earns an average of $ 200 ...

9. Slatina, Romania Viorica is 31 years old and has a stomach ache. There is no money for medicine. The house is also not theirs, but belongs to the state. They can be kicked out at any moment. There is no electricity or water either.

10. Faty from Acre. She is 8 years old. Children scour the landfill to find at least something.

11. 27-year-old prostitute Labone with her son.

12. 5-year-old Rudra and his 3-year-old sister Suhani. They live in the slums of the Indian city of Charad. They feel bad... They are sick. Their brother and sister recently died of starvation. Probably the same fate awaits them.

13. 6-year-old Vishal Sing tries to help a little girl in New Delhi. He goes to school…

Slam tourism (traveling through the slums) is gaining more and more popularity. We decided to list the most popular places to visit, in case you want to get especially thrilled during your upcoming vacation.

Brazil

In Portuguese, slums are called favelas - they are home to the poorest part of the population. It is clear that no building plans are being carried out and the very phenomenon of slums denies any architectural planning and calculation. As a result of this, the slums of Brazil resemble a real anthill without end and edge. These are gigantic endless seas of chaotic buildings with narrow streets, poorly developed infrastructure, no sewerage and simply an outrageous level of banditry and crime. An interesting fact is that more than a third of the country's population lives in the so-called favelas. This statistic is appalling and perfectly characterizes the standard of living in Brazil.

All the major cities of Brazil have grown into slums: they are also on the outskirts, Rio de Janeiro, the city of Belen (it is the leader in terms of the area of ​​​​the slums surrounding it). Slam tourism as a phenomenon appeared in Brazil back in the nineties, when it was especially dangerous for visitors to travel: constant attacks and robberies made this type of vacation extremely extreme. Now, on the contrary, the inhabitants of the favelas sell various souvenirs and drugs to tourists. In short, the market for slum travel is evolving.

India

This country has given rise to the largest slums in all of Asia. Indian Mumbai is famous for its slums throughout the world - the capital of crime and poverty. In general, India is a fairly safe country, except for the highest level of unsanitary conditions and a rather specific climate. However, will introduce you to crime and begging if you decide to visit. Hundreds of thousands of people here live below the poverty line: you will be met by dozens of children in tattered clothes, who will very persistently beg for alms: pulling your sleeves, tearing out your bag, they will try to take off your watch, shoes and, in general, all your clothes.

The Bombay slums are not only people, they are also a kind of unforgettable surroundings - huge piles of garbage and plastic bags, boxes and some incomprehensible mountains of dirty tattered rags. Excursions to these areas are held quite often: three times a day and may well satisfy the demand of foreign tourists. The price for the tour is ridiculous - only about eight dollars, which is more than a solid amount for the local population. The contrast of Indian slums is especially noticeable against the backdrop of much more prosperous business districts of the capital, where everything is rolled in concrete and glass.

In general, such excursions are a rather unnatural and strange occupation: to pay money to look at the suffering and poverty of other people, while feeling like something more significant. Excursion programs often include watching homeless children and beggars, as if they were not people, but animals in the zoo. It must be said that initially slam tourism was conceived not only to see and communicate with people in poor areas, but also to somehow financially help them.

China

Chinese slums are more civilized and tidy than those in India and Brazil. Slums in China are called hutongs, and here they are usually just a concrete block of ugly skyscrapers, many of which even have air conditioning. The poverty of the local population does not lead to an extreme increase in crime, walking through the Chinese hutongs, of course, you risk getting a few stab wounds or losing your wallet, but the risk is still not as high as in Brazilian favelas or Indian poor areas. Now the Chinese authorities are actively demolishing slum buildings, erecting elite glass high-rise buildings on the site of dilapidated houses.

Mexico

The largest slums in the world have grown around the Mexican capital - the city of Mexico City. They number about four million inhabitants, which is equal to the population of a small country. In terms of their structure, Mexican disadvantaged areas are very much like the Brazilian favelas - an exorbitant level of crime, a low quality of life, drug addiction and prostitution.

Such a deplorable situation with the standard of living and slums in third world countries occurred for the reason that abrupt and unnatural urbanization did not give the inhabitants of the provinces a chance to properly socialize and find their place. The result of this was the construction of villages in cities, which in essence are slums. The process of slum growth is gaining momentum every year. The areas of slums accompanying large cities, similar from space to cancerous tumors, are constantly increasing, as is the number of people living in them.

Alexey Loktionov

They say that New York is not exactly America It really is different from other cities. For example. typical Americans prefer to live in private homes. A lawn, a flag, a white fence are an important component of a sacred dream. So New Yorkers, mostly living in high-rise buildings, do not understand.

Multi-storey buildings are different. And prajects stand alone. These tall redbrick houses can be found throughout America. They were built for the poorest sections of the population of the country: those who are on welfare or have low-paying jobs.

These are areas for the poor. With all the consequences. It is said that it is dangerous to appear there even during the day. And just in one of these areas today we will take a walk.

1 There are a lot of areas like this in New York. In Manhattan, in Queens and Brooklyn, you can poke a map and go to any. We walk around the legendary Harlem. Its western part, which is “more or less” decent. Here, a white man with a camera will simply be looked askance, but not robbed. Relief. But, unfortunately, there will be no photographs of people, although they are colorful. By the way, on the other side of the elevated metro line, there is a completely different area, the standard of living in which can differ by several orders of magnitude. Even two neighboring houses can differ dramatically, including the price of real estate. Knows more about it newyork realty with whom we walked around the area. Dmitry is a New York realtor and maintains an interesting blog about real estate in America's largest city.

2 The first social housing was built in the 1930s, just after the Great Depression. And just in New York. High-rise buildings with small apartments were originally intended for the working class. Usually white. Black and Latinos began to settle in Pradzhekty later. In a capitalist society, the attitude towards social housing was biased from the very beginning, but over time it transformed into fear and hatred. Real estate for workers has become real estate for the unemployed. And the eternal unemployed. An apartment here can cost a couple of hundred dollars, and welfare(allowance) for a family is more than enough. In such houses, people are born, grow up and die who have never worked in their lives. I'm not kidding. It's not quite, but it's not any better.

3 By our, Russian standards, these districts look very good, don't they? Ordinary high-rise buildings, but the red brick looks even prettier than the gray Soviet "panels". And if we also imagine that these twenty-story buildings were built in the fifties, when only five-story "Khrushchev" houses were mastered in our country ...

4 There are even organized parking lots in the yards. I remind you that this is social housing for the poor. They can't afford an apartment, but they can't afford a car.

5 And these cars are sometimes quite expensive. This photo also shows a strange system of “yard barriers”, I saw such in several houses. The police trailer on the left is also not just worth it. They are used to illuminate bad areas at night. As far as I understand, they are controlled remotely: if necessary, they turn on powerful searchlights.

6 Playground. Brutal.

7 Basketball court in the yard. Seems to be pretty good.

8 There were very few people here on Sunday afternoon. There were no ordinary people, no hanging out Afrogopniks, with whom such neighborhoods are usually populated. It feels like everyone is sitting at home and not sticking out.

9 Vegetable gardens in the USA are also a sign of the ghetto, unfortunately. As a rule, it is in bad areas that people grow their own food, and do not buy it in supermarkets.

10 Very very dirty. But did you notice how many trees there are? Probably more comfortable in summer.

11 Srach, bars on the windows. Not typical for this country.

12 It seems to be the same houses in the neighborhood, a whole district of prajects. But there is a huge gap between the two houses in the photo. It seems that they are standing side by side, and they look the same ... Look at the windows. In this case, this will allow you to accurately determine where it is very bad and people do not work at all, in the other, just not very wealthy, but honest people can live. In one there are very small windows, like toilets, in the other they are quite ordinary. Outside, the houses are the same, but inside the layout will be different. By the way, all such series of houses were built somewhere in the fifties, that is, they are already more than half a century old.

13 houses with small windows there is another distinguishing feature. White letters under each window on the first floor are needed to identify apartments. This was done for the sole purpose of making it easier for the police if something happens. Anything can happen, from the harmless throwing of trash out the window to the throwing of corpses out of the window. And so a passer-by saw it, called the police, immediately reported the apartment number. We would like to make such letters.

14 Air conditioning mess. This house is better, that's why there are air conditioners in almost every window. This is not a luxury here, almost everyone can afford it. And installation is much easier, and the facade is not disfigured. The box is installed directly into the window.

15 Entrance of one of the houses. The address is written in large letters at the entrance. House number and street. Conveniently. And fences all around. Like perches, on which it is so convenient to sit idlers. Well, at least they don’t paint in yellow and green.

16 Entrance to the entrance. A blind door with a small barred window. Nothing special for us, of course. But the inscriptions prohibiting everything in the world and warnings that if an outsider goes inside, he will be immediately arrested.

Apartments in prajects belong to the city. They cannot be bought and cannot be freely rented. They are distributed among the poor who stand in line. Sometimes it lasts up to two years. For such families, moving even to such a house is happiness. They can be understood. But, once in the appropriate environment, they often begin to act weird, commit crimes and degenerate morally. The rules are strict and strict. If one of the Prajekt residents goes to jail, his entire family can be thrown out into the street. By the way, the measure is effective: since it was introduced, the number of crimes committed by local natives has decreased.

17 There are a lot of African-Americans living in the area, and someone decided to play on their feelings by putting up “Ferguson Everywhere” posters. The posters call for people to come to the rally, and the domain of the “revolutionary committee” website is very telling. Someone is rocking the boat.

18 In America, in general, a very high level of informing the population with the help of all kinds of plates and inscriptions. Even more so in areas like this. Do not put cars— someone wrote with a marker near the dumpsters in my yard. There are two large nameplates here. Completely forbidden throw garbage outside containers. On the right, the same neat sign warns of the prohibition of parking in this place. A little lower, they literally chew that if you still park, your car will be evacuated at your own expense.

19 In other places of the district, there are also many all kinds of reminders of the rules of behavior in society.
- Pick up after the dog!
- Do not walk on the lawns!
- Avoid barbecues and picnics
- Do not play ball on the lawn.

Such a number of bans is probably justified by the sad experience when barbecues turned into a shootout with disgruntled neighbors, and a ball game left half the house without windows.

20 In the yard of a squirrel. Americans do not like them very much and are even afraid. But let's now see how we could live in such houses. For obvious reasons, I could not get inside, and none of my friends have people living in prajects. Therefore, below are pictures of an absolutely decent and fairly typical apartment building for the United States. Here I will allow myself a little provocation, an experiment. Since few people read the text carefully, such people will probably skip this paragraph too. Starting with the next one, I will write as if those photos were also taken in Praject. Let's see how many people fall for the bait.

21 The "hotel" system of long corridors is very popular in all high-rise buildings in America. Pragjects are no exception. Endless doors opposite.

22 Since apartments cannot be bought here, only rented, the house is managed by a special company. All housing is typical, neutral white walls. Simple furniture and plumbing. Poor.

23 It is immediately clear that housing is social. There is no design, there is no design as such.

24 Public spaces at home have long been the norm in this country. But in normal residential complexes there are bars, cinemas and spas, and here is just a small gym. Also bars on the windows.

25 But in general, look how they live! Almost like people. The pool is small, but it's there!

26 Of course, prajects have a lot of disadvantages. It is social housing for the poorest. And the presence of similar buildings in the neighborhood reduces the price of ordinary apartments. But it's still better than Khrushchev in Kuzminki, isn't it?

Corner at the end of the post

Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, has the largest slum in Africa. In general, if you simply say "the largest slums in Africa", then it is not very clear how it is. For some reason, everyone presents Africa as an endless slum.

But here is a special case. Kibera is a city within a city. Some 5 kilometers from the center of Nairobi - and you are already in another world. There is such a boring phrase "urban jungle". In the case of Kibera, it is absolutely true. It is believed that the name of the area comes from the Nubian word kibra, which just means "forest" or "jungle". But, of course, this is not the only thing.

01. How many people live in Kibera is almost impossible to determine. State census takers, if they look here, then for show, and each international organization has its own rough estimates.

02. Data vary: figures are given from 200,000 to 2 million people. Most likely, the actual population of Kibera is somewhere between 200,000 and 800,000. The most plausible study counted 270,000 people. That is, in Kibera, you can comfortably accommodate all the residents of Novorossiysk. Or Syktyvkar. Or the whole Khimki)

03. There is electricity in Kibera, but not in all houses. Water supply and other amenities will probably never come here: it will be cheaper to demolish everything and rebuild the area. A tap with water can be one for several dozen houses. You can forget about the “normal” shower and toilet from the point of view of a European: there are only public ones, and there are very few of them.

04. Once upon a time, Kibera was formed as a ghetto thanks to the 1922 colonial law on vagrancy. He ordered all Africans to settle in a certain district on the outskirts of Nairobi, so as not to embarrass the white population with their appearance. At first, Nubian soldiers lived here, serving the interests of Great Britain, then they began to rent land to guest workers from rural areas. Gradually, the territory became denser.

05. Back in the late 1920s, Kibera was going to be demolished and its residents settled among the rest of the inhabitants of Nairobi. But this was opposed by the white population.

06. After Kenya's independence, Kibera effectively became an illegal settlement. The state has become the owner of the land on which the slums stand, although the Nubian elders make demands on it. The settlement still does not have any unambiguous status, so the state is not at all interested in improving the situation here. The authorities decided that the best way to solve Kibera's problems was to evict everyone, but this initiative failed (more on that below).

07. Contemporary art

08. Now it is no longer a suburb: Kibera is located just 5 kilometers from the center of Nairobi. The slums are divided into about a dozen villages, each inhabited by several tens of thousands of people. Since waste is not removed from here for years, houses are often built directly on and from garbage.

09. Sometimes garbage is set on fire, and then everything is enveloped in acrid smoke.

10. Main street in the slums. Along the main street is a deep ditch for water.

11. Wooden bridges are thrown across the ditch. As you can see, there are no sewers in Kibera as such. Rather, there is, but it is open. The problem of human and animal waste is very acute. There are organizations that are trying to build public toilets that can also produce methane for local residents, but so far this is a drop in the ocean.

12. This is how people live.

13. Slum population - representatives of several ethnic groups. The most common in Kibera are Luo (the most famous Luo is the father of Barack Obama), Luhya, Nubians, Kikuyu and Kamba. In some villages, the population has mixed, others remain more or less mono-ethnic and are controlled by the respective ethnic groups.

14. Garbage is thrown right out the door.

15. Sometimes houses are built right on steep slopes, and people climb into their homes like mountain goats.

16.

17. The child is sitting on the porch

18. Entrance to the store

19. Glasses

20. This is how people go to their yard.

21. Or so.

22. Sometimes the ditch is completely littered with debris.

23. Cyber ​​is absolutely safe!

24. Hairdresser

25.

26. An ordinary street in a slum looks like this.

27. And this is an ordinary house. The cost of a house here is only $300.

28. Church

29. One of the main problems of Kibera is healthcare.

30. AIDS and tuberculosis for the locals are not some distant, almost mythical diseases (as they used to think in Russia), but practically the norm. Cholera outbreaks, even more so. Medical organizations distribute drugs and contraceptives free of charge in the slums, but almost always encounter unforeseen difficulties.

31. A few years ago, volunteers who came to Kibera were shocked. Their work to combat the spread of AIDS and tuberculosis was complicated by a completely wild obstacle. The fact is that TB drugs and AIDS maintenance drugs work best when taken with food. But many patients simply did not have enough food for these medicines to work at all!

32.

33.

34. In general, ordinary city life is in full swing here: shops, cafes are open, people go to work, wash clothes, cook food. You can earn up to $2 per day in Kibera.

35. Masts with spotlights have recently been installed so that it is light at night. This allows you to fight crime.

36. Sewerage sometimes goes in pipes, but more often shit just pours into a groove in the middle of the sidewalk.

37. The sidewalk is covered with boards. Houses are built of clay and branches.

38. Street

39. Kibera stretches along the slopes of the hill, a very beautiful place.

40.

41. On the right is a sewer ditch.

42. Nairobi is the headquarters of the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), so Kibera has received increased attention from international organizations. However, it is not so easy to reconstruct slums.

43. First, the still high level of crime prevents this. In Kibera, it is impossible to leave building materials in one place at least for a short time: they will be immediately stolen. Although everything seems to be quiet and peaceful.

44.

45. They say that even people whose house was swept away by a storm are forced to stay inside or on the roof (if it survived) in order to protect their home from thieves.

46. ​​Secondly, most houses and shacks simply do not have a foundation. And it is not clear how to build it on such soil.

47. Kibera is not just sitting in the middle of a landfill. Kibera is a dump. Many dwellings are built directly on garbage heaps, and no one cares about the fragility of such structures. Some shacks live until the first heavy rain or hurricane. And everything would be fine if it were not for the domino effect: inferior houses, falling apart, destroy stronger ones.

48.

49. A branch of the Uganda Railway runs right through the slums (I will talk about it tomorrow). Somewhere in Kibera there is even a railway station, but almost no one uses it: people ride matata to the center of Nairobi.

50. Any kind of modernization is very hampered by building density. Houses literally stick to each other. Passenger cars can hardly pass where, not to mention trucks. This means that if the reconstruction program is ever fully activated, all building materials and tools will have to be brought here by hand. Another argument in favor of the supporters of the "demolish and rebuild everything" plan. However, there are almost none.

51. The toilet is shared by the entire region. This is how the houses are.

52. There are showers and toilets.

53. Sale of coal, everything is cooked on coal.

54.

55. A man drags coal to his home

57. Shoe store

58.

59.

60. Meat

61. I went to the hairdresser.

62. In 2009, the Kenyan authorities launched a resettlement program for slum dwellers. It was expected that Kibera would be finished in a maximum of 5 years. But the demolition of the area was opposed by the Nubian elders, who are also landowners, and the Supreme Court sided with the slum dwellers. So the process stalled.

They only managed to build 300 new apartments and move 1,500 people there, who must pay the state $10 a month for rent. But even here not everything was foreseen. Some people from Kibera rented out their apartments to representatives of the Kenyan "middle class" for the sake of earning money, while they themselves returned to live in the slums.

63. If you are in Kenya, I strongly advise you to visit Kibera. Amazingly interesting place. Do not be afraid;)