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Shvoong Home>Arts & Humanities>Soweto slum dwellers live in squalor Summary

Soweto slum dwellers live in squalor

Article Summary   by:Spoton     Original Author: JOSEPH MAZIGE
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Soweto slum dwellers live in squalor......

When you talk of Soweto, what comes to the mind is the South African popular slum. However, to the Jinja it''s the area inhabited by people who make the bulk of the urban poor. Slums are allover the world and Soweto in Eastern Uganda is just part of them. A slum is defined by UN Habitat as a place of residence lacking one or more of five things: durable housing, sufficient living area, access to improved water, access to sanitation and secure tenure. Soweto is located at the East of Jinja Municipal Council with a population of over 5000 people. I set off at 9.41am one Saturday to get a feel of the life of in this slum. It had rained the previous night and the muddy paths were stinking. In the slum, I met a team of volunteer Doctors who had gone to give free medical treatment to the people. The visibly sick people had gathered under a mango ready to be examined and treated. The Volunteers, led by Dr. Janet Power and Dr. Mark Russell both from England are from the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).
At least 900 people were treated of malaria, fevers, skin diseases and worms plus vitamins for the children. "When I first came here I was shocked seeing the kind of life these people were living. Today am not and I know what to do with these people", Dr. Power said. According to a social worker with the Catholic Diocese of Jinja Mrs. Mary Teresa Kafuko, who has worked in this community for years the conditions for the people have never changed for the better. "As we try to take up the challenge within the slum, the next day you will have the number of inhabitants increasing". "The number keeps swelling. This place is like a camp for displaced people and the leaders are not bothered about their (people''s) plight". She said the majority of the people in the slum are from Northern Uganda running away from the Joseph Kony led war against the NRM government. "If I had the power I would invite President Yoweri Museveni to this place.
People out there don''t know how bad the situation is in this place and the president should be brought to this place to see some of the people he leads and the life they lead". She said the government should come up with a scheme on the low income housing for the people in the slums. Mrs. Kafuko said when the Diocese started a project for them to do small businesses the response was good and a number of women are engaged in income activities. Housing. The housing in the slum is not defined and there are no proper routes. Most of them are congested together and are grass thatched and prone to fires. One hut is rented out at shs3000 and those with iron sheets A family of about 10 people sleeps in one hut as one way of reducing on the cost for rent. Crime She said the rate of crime in the slum was high and she works closely with Police to ensure that criminals are brought to book. In this slum, there is a lot of alcoholism which breeds crime.
People spend most of the precious time drinking the local potent gins distilled within the slum area. A number of fights do occur every day, thefts, adultery, drug abuse and defilement are the order of the day. Many women here have children whose fathers they claim they don''t know. This keeps the slum population increasing during the day and night. As they keep producing naturally they die and burials are made within the slum. My visit to the slum I saw a number of graves within what would have been the compound. "We can not transport bodies to the villages. So what happens we just have to burry next to your house and that is all", Clement Onyango who has lived in the slum since 1993 said in an interview.
Sanitation This is big challenge to the progress of the UN''s Millennium Development Goal of achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020. The so called bathrooms are in sorry state with stinking waste water dof water channels. Whenever it rains, the stench from the waste water engulfs the whole slum area and the neighbouring Walukuba Housing estate. Expectations of better access to education are unmet for most slum-dwellers here rejected the nearby primary school Masese Co-Education saying it belonged to the Karimajong community. Poor sanitation, means illness and death are rife as the people use polythene as toilets.
For the children, they do it anywhere. There are few ramshackle one stance latrines and restricted to few. Some people share one communal toilet with just one squatting hole. Despite the squalor, human life continues in the Soweto slum.Write your abstract here.
Published: August 03, 2007   
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