*** Local Caption *** views from Mathare slum.
The Mathare Valley is one the poorest slums of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It lies in a former rock quarry crossed by the small and unhealthy Mathare River. It’s populated with an average 200 000 inhabitants coming from all parts of Kenya, Luos, Kikuyus…, and with foreign communities such as Somalis. Poverty, high density of population and use of drugs as well as of local production of Lika, brewed from sugar molasses, are exposing the local population to a high climate of violence. MSF has been treating patients since 2001 in the Blue House, in the slums. Today the NGO takes care of victims of sexual violence in the Lavander Clinic and brings medical care to MDR/TB patients in the Green House. The Mathare slums belong to Nairobi’s Eastlands wider district. This poor and densely populated area gathers approximately 2 million inhabitants.