Dear Ministry of Healthcare in Mombasa, Kenya:

We are the students of Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, Seventh Grade mentor group B. We have noticed a growing problem that is only becoming worse. We are concerned about the hygiene in the slums.

The slums are already in bad conditions with contaminated water, less open spaces and adulterated food. Along with the Covid and the 4th wave it could be catastrophic. The people in the slums might know about hygiene, but because of their current living situation they can not do much about it. We believe that we could change this along with your help. 

The slums of Mombasa are already bad as they are, but with climate change, Covid and trash all around them, the chances of getting illnesses is high. About 56% of Kenya's urban population currently live in slums. Nairobi even hosts one of the largest slums in Africa, Kibera. 

It is very important to protect all citizens, even the people living in the slums. There is nothing proper being done about this problem.

People in the slums are trying their best to take care of their hygiene. They make soaps and masks, but this can only protect them so much.

The problem of Hygiene can be aided to with a few key changes help by building more public toilets, giving out FREE masks and hand sanitizer, putting public sinks (including the toilets) around the slums WITH SOAP, keeping dust bins and last but not least making  everyone aware of the terrible situation these people are living in regarding their hygiene.

We would like the Ministry of Health Care to spread awareness to the people because they look up to you,  

You should help build more public sinks and toilets.
Educate the people living in the slums.
 Give other citizens the permission to give out hand sanitizer and masks.

We know that this is a big burden, but it is a very big problem that we would have to do something about. 

If possible (this is not extremely important) we would like you to arrange big clean up days where everyone has to help clean the slums for better living conditions and hygiene.

Why are students like ourselves concerned about this? Even though it does not affect us directly, we do care about the citizens. The state that these people are living in are horrible. We might have access to good health care and good hygiene, but most of us agree that it is unfair that we are living like this when there are people out there are suffering because of our ignorance.

We believe that with better hygiene the slums could turn into a better place to live in. If we get better hygiene in the slums, there might be hope for the next generation. Instead of worrying about becoming deadly sick, one could instead worry about much more worse things, for example hunger. 

Illness is not something one should worry about, it should be a thing that comes and goes. Guaranteed hygiene is also something that one should not worry about, because it is obvious that they need it.

We might not be able to save the people from the slums, but we can help them along the way. And maybe, just maybe, even further.

 

Sincerely,
Samson Kariuki, Signe Gihelmoen, Sana Charania, Samier Hamdi & Mrinal Sindhwani.