The slums of Mukuru are home to over 400,000 people. Most of these people have left their rural homes because of poverty and came to the city in the hope of finding work. Some are successful but the majority, being unskilled and uneducated, remain jobless. They live in very poor shacks made from cardboard or plastic material while those who are a little better off have houses made from corrugated iron sheets. These one-roomed houses are approximately ten by ten feet and have no sanitation or running water.There is no waste collection and most of the waste, household and other, goes directly into the nearby river.

Current statistics show that over 60% of Nairobi’s population live in slum conditions. Slum dwellers pay rent for their shacks to landlords who ‘own’ the land. The amount varies from US $12-25 per month depending on the location of the house. There is no space for children to play. There are no recreation facilities for adults or children with the exception of bars, video shops, pool tables. Many turn to local brew, drugs and crime.

It is against this background that MPC is making an impact in the slum popultion by providing free and quality education for primary school children, food and shelter for the needy and care for orphaned and abandoned children.