
Professor Musa Rashid teaches Swahili literature to Form Threes at Kibera Girls Soccer Academy. KGSA is a free all-girls high school that offers
education to young women who could not otherwise afford it, and who are traditionally excluded from secondary education.
1/22

Jimiah, a teacher at KSGA, uses a laptop to check her email. The school recently received a grant to supply Internet
and netbooks for the library, and many students and teachers are now browsing for the first time.
2/22

Carol Tyrus runs laughing from the camera to avoid having her non-uniform shoes caught on record.
3/22

Girls stretch before soccer practice. KGSA began as a soccer program to empower young women in the slum. The school was founded
to provide girls with a safe place to pursue their education and avoid prostitution, early marriage and other ills plaguing girls in Kibera.
4/22

Boniface, a former physics teacher at KGSA, calls friends and family to borrow money in order to pay rent this month. The teachers work full time but
are largely a volunteer force, as the school can only afford to pay them 3,000 KES—roughly $40—per month. Boniface was fired last year for alcohol abuse.
7/22

The teachers at KGSA have little formal training in education and most have only a high school education.
Working for roughly $3/day, theirs is sometimes the only income for their household.
8/22

Estimates vary widely, but at least 200,000 people and as many as one million people live in roughly one square mile. There is widespread lack of access to basic
resources like clean water, sanitation and electricity. For its residents however, Kibera is defined as much by community as by hardship.
9/22

Richard Teka, programs manager of KGSA, sits in his office. Teka has been
involved with the school since 2006, having joined soon after its founding.
10/22

Josephat, a new teacher, waits in the doorway between classes. With both of his parents dead,
Josephat is responsible for raising his younger siblings. His small salary is all the money the family receives.
13/22

Girls study during their lunch hour—for many students the school provides their only meals for the day. Many face difficult situations at home: some are orphans
and others are living with extended family members while parents work at rural homes. All face incredible economic hardship.
14/22

A student sits with her daughter. Teen pregnancy is common for girls in Kibera,
though it is one of the many ills affecting women the school seeks to combat.
16/22

A third form concentrates on her lesson. Students at the school take courses in math, history, English, Swahili and science.
In January 2011, the school received a grant to construct a library and chemistry lab.
18/22

Girls look inside to watch a video students from the journalism club made about the living conditions in Kibera.
The building in this photo has since been replaced with a new science lab, seen in the final image of the series.
19/22

Lynn Seru stands with her family in their former living room. Since this photo was taken, Lynn's father moved to Eastern Kenya
with the rest of their family to save money. Lynn stays with a neighbor so she can continue school.
20/22








