Nairobi and C&T

C&T was honoured to be invited by Child Peace Africa to work with children and young people living in some of the most deprived parts of Nairobi in Kenya. It’s the start of what we hope will be a long-term and important partnership for both C&T and our partner schools across the UK.

Over a week of factfinding and practical participation in drama, C&T’s Artistic Director Dr Paul Sutton and Assistant Director Max Allsup met key development workers and some of the children living in one of the toughest urban environments in Africa.

Korogocho is in the north east of Nairobi, and borders onto the Dandora rubbish dump, recently brought into the headlines by Bill Nighy, who has challenged British bankers to go there and see how children are having to live. It’s normal for Korogocho’s children to scavenge the dump for scraps of food, either for their own consumption or for selling on. Child Peace Africa is one of the few NGOs actually working within Korogocho, helping people of all ages handle the problems of poverty, education, health and employment. Child Peace Africa know that imaginative ways of interacting and helping children and young people will be the most effective, and drama is a powerful tool for communicating stories and experiences that will help children and young people to survive and thrive.

Paul and Max worked with over a hundred young people on pieces of wasteland within Korogocho, sharing with them well-established drama techniques and some of C&T’s more personal developments, such as LipSync.

One of the smarter streets of Korogocho: