The team at A Path Appears would like to thank you for feedback shared on social media since the broadcast of A Path Appears: Violence and Solutions, the third episode of the three-part documentary series. Some of the feedback raised questions regarding population, rape and public service statistics included in the segment filmed in Kibera. We stand by the use of these statistics, however we decided to revise the episode description on our website in order to remove any ambiguity and offer more specific detail in response to some of the questions.

For clarity, the population of Kibera has been heavily contested over the years. Nonetheless, the most credible external sources (agencies such as UNDP and UN-Habitat) agree the current population is between 700,000 to one million people. The Kibera constituency itself is a large area encompassing both formal middle-class settlements and informal settlements where people live in conditions of extreme poverty.

Several middle-class areas that are considered a part of the Kibera constituency, located outside of the informal settlements, do indeed have roads, power, running water*, and public schools. In the informal settlements of Kibera where A Path Appears was filmed in 2013, there was no formal government power**, roads, running water or public services. Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), which is featured in this segment, reported that in the past few months the government started to change this through the National Youth Service and plans to upgrade roads, build community clinics and sanitation points, as well as improve community policing and access to police services. While many of these programs are not yet complete, several are in the early stages of development and planning and there is hope that they will be sustainable beyond their implementation.

It is our hope that the current attention to these issues will help provide additional momentum to ensure that in the future, all families and children in Kibera will have access to clean water and working sewage systems. We’ve interviewed dozens of residents of Kibera who have identified the lack of water and sanitation services as one of the biggest needs of their community, and are encouraged by the recent attention the government has given these issues.

The first four kindergarten classes in the Kibera School for Girls reported that 15 percent of students had been sexually assaulted or abused before entering school. In a recent 2014 internal survey, SHOFCO reports a decrease in this number to six percent. This is great news and a testament to the changing attitudes and conditions for the most vulnerable children in the community, the population SHOFCO serves. Additionally, the organization’s gender department in Kibera currently has 41 cases investigating gender-based violence (GBV) that are currently in the court system. SHOFCO is making great strides in providing services, outreach, and community partnerships to collectively address issues of violence against women.

In the period we were in Kibera to film A Path Appears, we were made aware of multiple reported rapes outside of those that were in the film. Many women we spoke to in Kibera talked about the difficulty of coming forward as survivors of GBV, due to numerous challenges, including intimidation, legal and police procedures, and holding perpetrators accountable. These statements point to a real need to provide additional support for survivors of GBV, and we are hopeful that in light of the recent dialogue around the statistics, these challenges will be addressed.

A Path Appears is a journey of hope from Nashville and West Virginia in America to Cartagena in Colombia, Port-au-Prince in Haiti, and to Kibera in Kenya, highlighting the work of organizations creating tangible change within their communities. The segment exploring Kibera reflected the strength and ability of this community to come together in supporting their most vulnerable, while also giving a voice to the people living through some of these challenges.

It is our hope that viewers will humanize the issues of inequality and the burden of poverty facing women and girls through our global exploration, and that they support the organizations making tremendous impact towards social justice. These dialogues are exactly the sorts of conversations we seek to have, to shed light on important issues, and ultimately, lead to action.

*Running water implies that water is piped to homes via a public utility.
**Government power implies power that is not from stolen lines and is accessible to homes.