A visit from GSK headquarters

Pictures: GSK PULSE photographers visit OGRA Foundation, our GSK PULSE team, the Kisumu slums where we work, two brothers sitting on a bench, AMREF headquarters Kenya, Kibera slums, Kibera alley, Kibera school kids, GSK sponsored handwashing station in Kibera.

This week GSK sent out a photographic team to document our adventures in Africa. Tom and Rebecca came from the home office in London, UK and followed us around trying to capture in pictures and video what we experience everyday. In the top photo they are greeted by Dr. Hezron Mc'Obewa, Executive Director for the OGRA Foundation. Hezron has been the strategic leader guiding the activities of the GSK volunteers. Next is a group photograph of us and starting from the left- Loren, Nerissa, Massimo, Paola, Janet, Melody and Christine.

The next couple of photographs are in the slums where we work. The slums are estimated to house 30,000- 50,000 inhabitants and the conditions are squalid. Most of the buildings are mud and sticks with mostly sheet metal roofs. I saw two little boys watching us so I stepped away for a quick snapshot. I turned the camera around to show them how they looked and I'm not sure they have ever seen their own picture.

We drove into Nairobi to visit with AMREF Kenya, one of the largest relief programs in Africa. We hoped to take away some best practices that we can use in our work with the OGRA Foundation in Kisumu. GSK sponsors some of the work done by AMREF and you can see the orange GSK logo painted on one of the handwashing stations set up near a school. The two little girls were posing for me.

The Kibera slums in Nairobi are the largest in Africa with around one million inhabitants living in about 250 acres of space. The conditions are terrible with no running water or sanitation services. If you look carefully in the aerial photograph you can see the sewage running down the middle of the dirt pathway. The houses are built of mud, sticks, pieces of wood or sheet metal, or whatever can be improvised into a shelter. Alleys are narrow and winding and you can easily get lost without a guide. We were escorted by AMREF workers who knew the area very well.

The brightest spot in the slums were the kids who lived there. We stopped by one of few schools in the area and we were greeted by the happiest children. I think they are the only hope for a better future.