Portraits of Nairobi

Nairobi launch @ British High Commission

On the 18th April 2011 KOINONIA: SELF-PORTRAITS BY NAIROBI STREET CHILDREN was launched in Nairobi at the British High Commission. Among the guests present were UK High Commissioner to Kenya, Rob Macaire, Koinonia Community Director Father Renato Kizito Sesana, and Artist David Fulford and all the boys who took part in the Portraits of Nairobi workshop. A performance by the rehabilitated street children from Kivuli (Kivuli Acrobats), one of the Koinonia Community initiatives, brought the afternoon to an end with an energetic show of acrobatics and traditional African dances.

News from Africa article

London launch @ Present

On 2nd November Present London hosted the launch for the newly published charity book: KOINONIA: SELF-PORTRAITS BY NAIROBI STREET CHILDREN. We want to thank everyone for coming down. The
book is available to buy in store and online.

Click on images to enlarge

Koinonia: Self-Portraits by Nairobi Street Children

In 2009 a charity book was made to document the Portraits of Nairobi project. Koinonia: Self portraits by Nairobi Street Children comprises hundreds of colour photographs and drawings made in 2006 by the street boys from Kibera. It is a collection of visual Self-Portraits that reveal each boys remarkable journey into their own personal world. Leading through the narrow streets and into the slum dwellings of Kibera, the boys images provide an intimate representation of children's lived experience on the streets of Kibera.

Find our more about the project and join our Facebook group here

Buy a copy

Order your copy of KOINONIA: SELF-PORTRAITS BY NAIROBI STREET CHILDREN online now. All profits from sales of the book are being be donated to the Koinonia Kenya projects. So far the Koinonia book funds has been used to purchase educational books and library cabinets for the children at Ndugu Mdogo Home and Ndugu Mdogo Rescue Centre. In future funds will be directed towards supporting the development of a Rescue Centre in Kibera, specifically for street girls.

Distributors

The book is stocked and can be bought at the following distributors and stores:

144 Pages
20.9 x 27.7cm
Colour Offset
Text in English
First Edition Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-0-9565922-0-0

"In today’s globalized world of extreme inequalities, we should have more experiences of sharing and understanding each other. Children and their families who live in Kibera are usually lamented in the media and development reports for their material deprivation and vulnerability. But this book provides perspectives of the richness in poverty, of the human capabilities of materially poor people. As the pictures and commentary show, the population of Kibera has found ways of coping with their conditions."

– Excerpt from Forward Essay by Ida Kaisa Lonnqvist - PhD Human Geography Candidate London School of Economics and Political Science

"The pictures were taken by very small boys, most of them scarred by traumatic experiences on the street, and some aged below ten. All of them used simple disposable cameras, yet a number of pictures are so well done, you would mistake them for the work of professionals with years of experience ... Although most of the pictures represent a world afflicted by the lack of even the most basic necessities, quite a few of them radiate a sense of hope. You will see, among other images, a girl with a wide smile on her face, and a boy with ragged clothes playing peek-a-boo in front of a garbage hill. These are images of hope."