NAIROBI (dpa) – The children no longer notice the stench and are undaunted by their surroundings.
The horde of bare-footed boys and girls are laughing and chasing a soccer ball, while the wind blows the smell of the nearby garbage dump and sewage over the barren football field.The “desert area” is a sea of corrugated tin roofs in the Mathare district, one of the largest slums in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.The six rusting, netless goals standing in the clay are more than just football goals for the youngsters: for them, football is a chance that one day they can escape the slums – and as a star player for the “Mathare Youth Sports Association” (MYSA).This self-help programme, started up by a Canadian 14 years ago, has since attracted 14,000 boys and girls.“Our slum has become world famous through MYSA,” boasts 11-year- old William. He notes that Simeon Mlama came from here, and explains who Simeon Mlama is – none other than one of the best strikers in the world.Right now Mlama is scoring goals for “Mathare United”, which is one of 1,000 MYSA teams and which has risen up to play in Kenya’s national football league.Such fame was only the stuff of dreams of the slum youths back in 1987, the year when a former Canadian diplomat sat down with them in a bar on the edge of the slums.While in the front room men were amusing themselves with cheap liquor and prostitutes, in the back room the group swore to forego alcohol and from that point on to promote the game of football and the welfare of the local community.They were clear about one thing: before any of them could become soccer stars, they first had to practice. And before they could do this, they need a place to play – meaning that they first had to clear the garbage which was lying around in stinking piles everywhere one looked in the slums.“We quickly realised that a well-organised garbage dump here was at least as necessary as a football field,” said Samuel Karanja, one of the founding members of MYSA.From that point on, not only was the ball in motion, but also a garbage collection operation organised by the slum dwellers. The piles of trash shrank and the number of sports club members grew.Since they were too poor to afford any club dues, their payment consisted of collecting garbage.“For every collection, the helpers won six points for their team,” Karanja said. This was enough motivation for thousands of 12- to 16- year-olds to help out with the weekend garbage collection efforts.This gained the notice of the United Nations, and the MYSA was awarded a prize by the U.N. Environmental Program at the 1992 environment summit in Rio de Janeiro.The youngsters, wearing their team’s yellow jerseys, look like a nest of ants as they scurry around with their shovels and help out a tractor pushing a pile of trash in front of it. The tractor and a garbage truck belong to the MYSA, which operates purely from donations.A barefooted 12-year-old girl, standing ankle-deep in garbage, proudly explains how she helps out 20 hours a week. Margaret is her name and she plays for one of the 225 girls’ soccer teams.“Girls and football would have been inconceivable here before MYSA,” said Isabel Mbuthia. A teacher who assists the girls’ teams, she is particularly happy that now almost all the girls are attending school.“Soccer has strengthened their self-confidence,” Mbuthia said, adding that the MYSA has also helped to improve respect shown towards women in the slum district.Aiding in this effort are the 200 trained youngsters who on behalf of the sports club go around the community as part of an information campaign about the deadly AIDS virus.Many children in Mathare are the offspring of prostitutes. The desperation of these women, who sometimes sell their sexual services for less than the equivalent of 45 U.S. cents, is such that they rarely demand that their clients use a condom.“Much of this is simply based on the fact that men here traditionally do not respect women,” says Salim, one of the leaders of the AIDS information project.“We are working for fair play,” he adds with a laugh, “and not just on the soccer field.”
