Water and development:

Interdisciplinary team strives to improve Nairobi slum

For more than three years, the University of Denver has been sending students and faculty to the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, to provide flush toilets, showers and potable water to the nearly 1 million people living in the Kibera slum’s one square mile.

DU’s engagement, which started in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, has grown in scope and impact thanks to interdisciplinary efforts among campus departments and outreach to Denver and Nairobi organizations.

Today, students and faculty from the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies and the Korbel School tackle hygiene training, governance analysis and field research on their annual trips to Kibera, complemented by business planning and project management oversight in Denver from adjunct faculty and graduate students in the Daniels College of Business.

From its inception, the project has been sponsored by Rotary Club of Denver Southeast. In summer 2010, Sister Cities International helped send a representative from Denver Wastewater to join the team in Nairobi. It continues to meet with DU on future sponsorships.

In Nairobi, DU has created partnerships with Kenyan faculty and students and an organization called Maji na Ufanisi, which means “water and development.”

Renée Botta, chair of the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies, serves as leader of the Kibera Working Group. Her specialty is international health communication. To illustrate the impact of the interdisciplinary efforts, Botta shared a success story involving both hygiene education and business planning.

“We want to promote hygiene and we want to help women open small businesses,” Botta explained. “One of the barriers to hygiene is the cost of a bar of soap. We discovered that they could make a cheaper liquid soap and sell it at a profit near the water facilities, so they can start a business that also promotes hygiene.”