Bob Kikuyu, eduKenya Co-Founder and Kenya Executive Director concludes our dream series in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. by sharing his reflections on the state of the Mathare slum community and eduKenya’s dream of transformation for its beloved children and families:[caption id="attachment_264" align="alignleft" width="200"]

Bob Kikuyu, Co-Founder and Kenya Executive Director[/caption]Bob: Having been born and raised in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, I grew up hearing of the Mathare slum. Two things were synonymous with this place: the presence of East Africa’s only mental hospital, a terrifying place to think about as a child, and the destitution of the Mathare Valley. I grew up knowing Mathare as a place of abject poverty and the centre of every vile thing, from illicit brew and prostitution to incomprehensible violence. Mathare was a place to fear, a place for no decent Kenyan like myself to venture.The reality in Mathare is more desperate than I had imagined as a child. Violence and hostility have increased over the years. Mathare was a hotbed of tribal killings and the centre of Kenya’s most feared vigilante groups during the 2007 elections. Signs of desperation linger everywhere, etched deeply on the faces of people and seen in leaning shacks whose foundations sit atop rubbish dumps.Disease hides itself deep in the bodies of many and the announcement of death is not uncommon. Many children and young people hang around idly while older men run from their family responsibilities to another world under the influence of cheap brew. Many women break their backs trying to singlehandedly raise their families.The dream of eduKenya is to participate with God in bringing about transformation in Mathare one child and family at a time. We dream that the name Mathare will be synonymous not with the reality just described, but with a reality of extraordinary transformation. We dream that children will have their full spectrum of needs met – physically, spiritually, academically, socially and economically – and that the opportunities they have to break out of the cycle of poverty will catalyze transformation in Mathare.Many of the children who attend Kwa Watoto school had never been outside the slum until we started taking them on field trips. They had never visualised a world beyond the poverty that encapsulated them. When we take them on field trips to worlds beyond their imagination, when we speak into their lives about their potential and the possibilities for how they can use their education in the future, we participate in the process of helping them see a world beyond their circumstances and dream. When we teach, mentor and train these children, we grow within them the possibility of a world better than what they have.Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” We have a dream of transformation for Mathare, well aware that our commitment to the community requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle at times. We will nonetheless persevere because we have been called by God, through whom all lasting transformation takes place. Thank you for joining us in dreaming big, God-sized dreams for Mathare and its beloved children.