SCHOOL/ From the slums of Nairobi: “my school is as beautiful as a castle”

At The Little Prince, the day begins at 7 am for children from the slum who, not having the conditions for doing homework and studying at home, prefer to come to school. At that time, there is already a teacher waiting for them. The teachers take turns coming early to welcome the "early bird" children, and to ensure that there is someone there to wait for them and to guide them in finishing their homework.
In Africa, every school has a motto. The Little Prince’s is "What is essential is invisible to the eyes." The school was built in 1999 by AVSI and their Swiss partner Avaid in the district of Kibera, Nairobi, to respond to the educational needs of the area.

Kibera is one of the largest slums in Africa. 750 000 people live there, all in houses made of nothing: mud, wood, pieces of wood and corrugated iron sheets as roofs. In Kibera, there are no bathroom facilities, no drinking water, no electricity, and there is garbage everywhere. When it rains, the mud drags everything along with it. Children are born and grow up here in a climate of extreme violence. Being able to attend school, especially one as beautiful as The Little Prince, is a great opportunity to grow.

Beginning with 9 children, today the school, with the support of AVSI and Avaid’s adoption from a distance program, welcomes more than 300 primary school students and 50 students in the kindergarten that opened in 2010. Last July, some children sang in the choir of Maestro Muti, in his stop in Africa on the Paths of Friendship for the Ravenna Festival tour.

At the Little Prince, classes officially begin at 8 am and, at 10:30 am, the bell rings for recess. First the youngest children, from kindergarten to the lower classes (first to fourth grade) and then the others, (fifth to eighth grade), are offered porridge, which is certainly the first food of the day for them. After a pause of about half an hour, they return to class. At 12:30 the smallest children go back to the cafeteria for lunch and at 1 they are joined by the other classes. Then they play until 1:40.

For the children of our school, lunch time is very important because it is the only sure meal fo the day for most of them and it is a time for the class and the teacher to stay together, a situation that is generally not experienced at home, since it is unlikely that, in poor families, both parents are present. But even if one of the two parents were present, it is unlikely that they are able to provide a meal, and those who succeed do not sit together at the table to eat because it is not part of their culture.