Making Your Voice Count for slum Dwellers (World Habitat Day 2014 “Voices from the Slums”) by Cadmus Atake Enade The United Nations designated every first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day. The purpose of World Habitat Day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter and habitation. It is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns. World Habitat Day was established in 1985 by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 40/202, and was first celebrated in 1986. This year’s UN –habitat day came up on the 6th of October 2014 with the Theme: “Voices from the slums” and the objectives of this years theme is • Raise awareness of life conditions in slums. • Develop processes and tools in defense of the historical memory of the people who have lived and live in the slums. • Demonstrate, through real stories, to decision makers in the urban arena that slum upgrading programmes can achieve better life conditions for slum dwellers, and greater economic and social impacts. • Share experiences on slum upgrading among cities and urban areas worldwide. • Contribute to a policy dialogue that focuses on the broad range of issues related to the integration of the life in the slum into the city. • Identify policy formulation and capacity development issues in which the UN system, in particular UN-Habitat, can offer significant contributions. • Identify key stakeholders in slum upgrading and adequate housing and actively engaging them in further discussions. • Contribute as relevant to the post-2015 discussions and Habitat III Conference. This year’s habitat day “Voices from the Slums” focuses on giving voice to people who have lived or live in slums or other vulnerable urban contexts. This celebration gave room for Government, NGOs, Private sector academic and other institutions to place current and past slum dwellers as leading figures of World habitat Day 2014, through various communication platforms such as the internets, social media and other modes of communication to enable their voices to be heard. But one thing worries me so much and is that the fact that those whose day is being celebrated and whose voices needs to be heard are not even aware of the event being celebrated, this is because more than 70% of world population dwelling in the slums lacks basic amenities such as proper housing/shelter, electricity, portable water, good sanitary conditions, schools and communication facilities so they lacks access to such communication tools to air their voices. Example of some evacuated slums in Nigeria is the Maroko and Makoko slum dwellers in Lagos state. Maroko In July 1990, the prevailing military government of Lagos State, Nigeria ordered the demolition of Maroko community. The demolition of the entire community was carried out after a-seven-day quit notice announced over the radio and led to the forced eviction of an estimated 300,000 people from their homes of several decades. The eviction was implemented by armed security agents who physically assaulted residents bold enough to attempt to salvage their property from the rampaging bulldozers. Twenty women were reported raped by the security agents. The Lagos State government made no prior arrangement to resettle or compensate the evictees before commencing the evictions. Faced with homelessness, the evictees took up residence at Ilasan, Ikota and Epe communities (located between 5 and 10 kilometers away from former Maroko community) which comprised abandoned uncompleted buildings built by the Lagos state government; the buildings were in various stages of dilapidation. Several weeks later, the Lagos state government also moved to evict them from the three communities and only reneged following public outcry and condemnation of their actions. Subsequently, the state government officially allocated the buildings to about 2% of the affected landlords (an estimated ten thousand landlords were forcefully evicted) whilst the remaining 98% of the evictees were neither resettled nor compensated. Thereby forcing them into urban area to find shelter and low cost settlement leading to over population in the cities and new slums created within the cities. Another example of a mega slum gradually being evacuated in Nigeria is Makoko community also in Lagos state. Makoko Makoko is a slum neighborhood located in Lagos, Nigeria. At present its population is considered to be 85,840; however, the area was not officially counted as part of the 2007 census and the population today is estimated to be much higher. Established in the 18th century primarily as a fishing village, much of Makoko rests in structures constructed on stilts above Lagos Lagoon. Today the area is essentially self-governing with a very limited government presence in the community and local security being provided by area boys. In July 2012, Nigerian government officials destroyed dozens of residences after giving residents 72 hours notice of eviction. One resident was killed in the action. Lagos may continue the destruction of this historic community in order to redevelop what is now seen as prime waterfront. Till date Makoko community is still been threathened with evacuation from the state government. The most recent occurance occured in June 2014, where some community people lost their lives and the affected people are still not being relocated or compensated for their loss so we need to join thses ones in airing their voices to world. I know someone might ask that the well over 2 million mobile phone users in Nigeria, the slum dwellers inclusive do have access to communication gadgets ! Yes, some do but the fact remains that even when these people have this communication gadgets without being educated they cant air their voices. That’s were we come in as literate beings and urban dwellers, sleeping and waking up in a comfortable house with electricity, portable water, good sanitary conditions and all that. Is really nice living in a comfortable environment, but have we really taken our time to go deep into a typical slums to see what is likes living in a slum, what they feel, and how they survive, please do if you have not. Those living there are faced with all manner of social vices, such high crime rate, high level of rape cases, violence among others. Most times these slums are located in swampy areas/regions, hilly regions, un-utilised government properties, under bridges, abandoned industrial estates among others. It is usually characterised with shanty buildings constructed with scraps from corrugated metals woods, zinc etc, poor sanitary conditions, lack of basic amenities etc, and most times the properties where these slums are is usually not the dwellers properties and so they are usually prone to un-expected evacuation from the land. Therefore they are insecured because they dont have a permanent place they call their home. Slums are not only found in rural areas, they can also be found within an urban settlement where the population is more than the housing amenities available. How to relate with Slum Dweller to get their stories. From the characteristics of slums shared you will discover that these areas are prone to claims by their owners and evacuations from such properties is inevitable so this drives the slum dwellers to be more hostile to outsiders coming into their environment to help them but however there are approaches to gaining their trust and confidence. • When visiting these areas go in as a friend, endeveavour to locate the clan or community head/youth leaders explain to them your purpose for the visits and that you feel their pains too • Eat with them, drink with them and share in their struggles and stories while you do this ensure you are taking note of every details, history and story shared about their land and welfare. • Always ensure to know what their major problems in the coomunity are and propose a favourable solution to them. • Always give the people the assurance that their voices will be heard nationally and globally, if you can gain accesss to a photo camerea, take good photographs of the slums and their activities and share on your social media. Show this to them if you have an access to the internet so that you can gain their trust more. • Engage in a sustainable project in the slums that will draw international attention to the area, using the flooting school in Makoko slums in Lagos state. Making their voices heard • When visiting the slums ensure to run a one on one interview with the slum dwellers, asking them indirect questions that will enable them air the views and speak at length about their environment and well being. Take notes of their name and occupation as this will add more colours and value to their personality . • Take snap shots of the shant houses, their lavatories, portable water collection systems, educational facilities, their occupation and quality of life they are living in the slums as this will give them a voice and an issue to voice out to the world and lastly also take notes of corporations and organizations whichs runs business around these slums and their contributions to the lives of these people. • Lastly always keep in touch with these ones in the slums as in the slums lies great destinies and world changers. Remember we all are not born with silver spoon but those of us without it, where born with opens arms which can hold on to any spoon we decide to hold. So lets contribute our quota to giving a voice to the kids and youths in the slums as this will go a long way in creating a better future and a conducieve habitat for them to live in. Let’s not give up on the slum dwellers, rather lets give them a voice in our own capacity and lets stop waiting for the government and corpoorations to help out because they have not proved they can effectively carry and cater for the slum dwellers. Sources unhabitat.org/world-habitat-day/ frontlinedefenders.org en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoko
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 16:34:26 +0000
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