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Celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas with this wonderfully handmade banner of Kitenge stockings! Tuck a little Christmas treat into each stocking for a gift to a child of any age and enjoy the joy of the cheery colors used in the African fabrics in each of these hand-sewn stockings, crafted by artisans in Kenya using remnant pieces of wax prints. You're bringing fun to your family while providing education for children through their school in Kenya!
These darling creations provide jobs and wages for men and women who have been displaced into the Kibera slums, offer kids programs to their children, and support soccer (football) clubs with the slum's residents through our partners at Grain of Rice Project.
12 Days of Christmas Stockings
Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa, is located in Nairobi, Kenya. It's hard to know exactly how many people live here, but a recent showed that there are approximately 235,000 people in this 1 1/2 kilometer area. The residents live in small, overcrowded shacks that are about 12 x 12 feet. These houses are made of mud and sticks with corrugated tin roofs. There is no indoor plumbing in Kibera and residents must share a toilet (which is a simple hole in the ground) with up to 50 nearby shacks.
Residents often have to walk far to purchase and collect water, which is carried back to their homes in jerry cans. Electricity has been expanded by the government in recent years, but it is often spotty. In the past, many houses had electricity all wired illegally to one pole, which creates a serious fire hazard.
Kibera is extremely polluted. Until recent years, there was no garbage pick-up and now it is inconsistent at best. Trash, food scraps, and even human waste are scattered about everywhere. The garbage leads to huge sanitation and health problems. HIV+/AIDS, teen pregnancy, and unemployment are widespread. Parents struggle to provide basic needs for their families and to afford the fees required to send their children to school.
And Yet..
Despite all of these hardships, Kibera does have a vibrancy and an aliveness to it. There is often loud music spilling out of houses, people making jokes, and entertainment in abundance. Kibera is almost like a small city, in that most basic purchases can be made within the slums. Unless they are employed outside of the slum, it is common for people who live there to only leave occasionally every few months.
[source: Grain of Rice Project]
Handmade in Kenya by Grain of Rice Project
