Likoni island is just off the coast of the main Mombasa island. There is a circular car ferry system of three huge ships constantly moving people and lorries between the two islands. Likoni is considered one of the poorest places in Kenya mainly because it is filled with people from all different nationalities trying to find work and opportunity in Mombasa. It is the 'cheapest' place to live in Mombasa and that effectively makes the island one huge slum.
I managed to connect with the minister for Heritage here in Kenya who is from this area and he arranged a visit to the island with some of his officials. I have seen some shocking poverty in my time but this place was up there with the worst I have seen. The worst pictures I cannot show because I had to hide my camera at one point...(and also my son reads this blog - sorry Osh!)
There are twenty schools on the island of Likoni. Initially the government officials wanted to buy computers directly from Camara and they would look after equipping the schools on the island. Needless to say I disagreed given that it is election year! In this country you have no idea how those computers could be used in an election campaign! So after some hard negotiations they agreed to provision all the schools with the necessary infrastructure to support a computer lab and then following this Camara would supply computers directly to the schools...
If we can do something significant on the island of Likoni I think we could have an impact almost anywhere...
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