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Kibera Kids4Peace Paint About Migingo Island Dispute

Within the slums of Kenya, dense populations and intense poverty compound to create a volatile environment where conflict can erupt at any moment. In April, a dispute erupted between Uganda and Kenya, over Migingo Island in Western Kenya. Uganda declared that the island was Kenyan but the water around it was Ugandan. The effects of the diplomatic dispute were seen mainly in Kibera. For days the streets of Kibera were littered with tire fires, riots, bloody violence and chaos as Ugandan residents were targeted and beaten. The railroad tracks that run around Kibera were torn out by angry mobs, houses were burnt and people attacked with machetes and stones. The children from Kibera Kids4Peace  witnessed all of these events. In May we returned to Kibera to continue painting with the children. They decided as a group to paint about the Migingo Island riots they experienced. As they finished their paintings we wrote down some of their haunting stories. Their paintings showed the railroad tracks, figures holding machetes and throwing stones and fires in the streets. Despite this horrible reality, Kibera children constantly think about peace, probably because of all of the violence that they have experienced.

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