FairPlanet.Support
| topic: | Child rights |
|---|---|
| tags: | #Kenya, #art, #artists, #Hip Hop City, #youth empowerment, #Africa’s youth, #Africa, #NGO, #music, #hip hop |
| by: | Yair Oded |
Dandora, an eastern suburb of Nairobi, is home to a massive landfill site, where many of the residents find their main source of income - plastic waste sold at 5 cents per kilogram. A great number of the waste collectors are children, who spend days in the sun, sifting through garbage in hazardous conditions.
Hip Hop City is a Dandora-based non profit youth organisation, founded by Juliani - a Kenyan hip hop artist and social entrepreneur who wanted to give back to the community he was brought up in.
Hip Hop City offers a range of programs for youths of the area, through which they get to explore their talents, develop a network, and ultimately share their art with the world.
The organisation’s Ndoto Zetu program, which is Swahili for “our dreams”, provides kids with an opportunity to acquire various skills, showcase their talents, and find a community. The program’s instructors “Guide kids aged 7 – 17 and educate them on proper self-care, the dangers of drug abuse, early pregnancies, the vices of tribalism and assertiveness to liberate themselves from bad company and peer pressure.”
School of Rhyme, one of Hip Hop City’s main programs, provides youths a space to explore their artistic (particularly musical) talents, improve their skills, and get the support they need to embark on a career in the field.
Located on the edge of Dandora’s landfill, Hip Hop City attributes great importance to environmental issues and education, and runs several environmental programs.
Among its various clean-up initiatives, the organisation runs a “bank” which allows children in the area to trade items of waste for points which they can use to acquire essentials for cooking and home sustenance.
Hip Hop City is supported exclusively by donations of locals who took interest in the founder’s initiative, and is operated by a network of volunteers from the Dandora area. Juliani’s goal, however, is to make the organisation self-sustaining in the near future.
Please visit Hip Hop City’s website to learn more about its mission and programs, pledge a donation, and learn about other ways in which you can support their community.
You may also want to check out this short YouTube video about Hip Hop City created by CGTN Africa.
Image: Hip Hop City
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