Today’s news is filled with images and stories of violence in Kenya, spurred by a close presidential election whose irregularities have ignited long-standing tribal rivalries. Some of this unrest has taken place in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, considered one of the worst slums in the world. Ten years ago a visitor to the slum provided Julius Mwelu, then 12 years old, a disposable camera—and joined him to a project called Shootback in which Mathare youth would document the world around them, showing daily life in an African slum.

The project led to a stunning book called Shootback: Photos by Kids from the Nairobi Slums. It also launched Julius Mwelu on his current path: working with other youth in Mathare to tell their stories through photographs. He has started a foundation, The Mwelu Foundation, and the Mathare Youth Sports Association.

As told by Julius Mwelu, 22, photographer and founder of The Mwelu Foundation

“The Mwelu Foundation is a youth photography project based in the Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Currently we are working with 45 children who themselves are determined to change their lives for the better.

“Mathare is a truly desperate place to live. One of the largest slums in the world, hundreds of thousands of people live in an area just a few square kilometres in size. Social problems like ill health, child abuse and alcoholism are evident wherever you look. Infrastructure is poor and amenities are lacking. Every day people die needlessly because of disease, tribal clashes, drugs and domestic violence.

“Yet life goes on and the people of Mathare make the most of what they have. It is a terrible misconception that places like Mathare lack innovative and creative people simply because of the poverty that the residents are forced to endure.

“The Mwelu Foundation has taken a positive initiative by helping ambitious, positive and talented young people to realize their potential. The ghetto life can lead to a vicious cycle of immorality, crime, prostitution and illiteracy among others. Our modest aim is to try and break this cycle for a few of the deprived children in Mathare.

“Our primary activities center around photography and journalism but also include other creative arts such as film production, poetry and music. We carry out community work in the form of environmental clean-ups and visits to other vulnerable community groups.

“Recently we have started a life skills education program in the areas of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS awareness, computer literacy and language training.

“Children have vivid and important stories to tell, and cameras are dynamic tools for this expression. Lana Wong started the Shootback Project to help give young people in Mathare the means to tell their own stories. In August 1997, under the auspices of Africa’s largest youth sports and development NGO, the Mathare Youth Sports Association and with support from the Ford Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), youth leader Francis Kimanzi and Lana started teaching photography and writing to a group of 31 boys and girls, aged 12 to 17. The kids had never held cameras before.

“Equipped with $30 plastic cameras, the Shootback Team photographed their lives and wrote about them every week for almost two years. The results were honest, raw, amusing and beautiful —these visceral images became the basis of a 200-page book Shootback: Photos by Kids from the Nairobi Slums(Booth-Clibborn Editions, London 1999). The book was launched at the Barbican Centre in London with an exhibition that toured around the world.

“The Shootback Project continues to train young photographers in Mathare today and their photos are displayed both in the slum and in international shows. An exhibition in Paris with to commemorate Shootback’s tenth anniversary is planned for Spring 2008.”

Click here to meet more of The Mwelu Foundation’s young photographers.

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