After working for 16 years in professional careers– Alison as an attorney and Giles as a former teacher and IT professional– God interrupted our lives in a dramatic way. In 2014, we sold our house and most of our personal belongings and moved to Africa for three years.

We worked in Nairobi, Kenya in a network of urban slums called Mathare Valley, one of the largest in the world. Located less than five miles from the main city center, Mathare Valley is less than two square miles long, approximately a half mile wide, and home to more than 800,000 people.  

Residents of Mathare Valley live in small, crowded shanties (10×10 or less!) made of wood, tin, mud, and cardboard. They don’t own their homes, so they can be displaced at any time. Mathare residents lack basic necessities of life, like adequate housing, clean water, and sanitation services.  A river of garbage and sewage runs through the Valley, literally pushing Nairobi’s trash downstream onto the doorsteps of an overcrowded population.

Families who call Mathare home experience extreme poverty, preventable disease, unemployment, and a lack of basic education. These factors perpetuate the cycle of generational poverty.

Despite these overwhelming issues, hope exists in Mathare, bolstered by an irrepressible sense of community and love for neighbor. We were blessed to work for an amazing organization, Missions of Hope International (MOHI), that meets the needs of Mathare families with the unstoppable love of Jesus. To learn more about MOHI’s holistic ministry, click here.