Kennedy is one of Africa’s best- known community organizers and social entrepreneurs. For twenty-three years Kennedy lived in the Kibera Slum, the largest slum in Africa, where he experienced the devastating realities of life in extreme poverty first hand. The oldest of eight children, he became a street-child at the age of ten. Still, he …
When Jane Otai walks through the Nairobi slums, she is no stranger. No stranger to the women living in corrugated-metal shacks or worse, no stranger to the poverty, overcrowded conditions and health problems devastating families. Most of all, she is no stranger to the huge boost that family planning services can provide for the urban …
A generation ago, New York and Tokyo were the world’s only megacities. By 2025, the UN predicts there will be 37. All but a handful will be in the developing world. The fate of millions, then, rests on the question: what will life in these megacities look like? While density is an almost universally celebrated …
Jane Otai finds a novel way to get through to her community in the Nairobi Slums. As part of the Undaunted: 10 frontline innovators shaping global health session at the Aspen Ideas Festival The Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation’s premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to …
Imagine walking around your town and being unable to read street signs. Perhaps you are ill and go into a health care clinic but you can’t understand the words on the forms you are given or the direction on the bottle of medicine you receive. Illiteracy makes your world feel small and inaccessible. "It is …