Division of Labor

A single mother sits quietly on the thin foam mattress of her bed, breastfeeding her small baby. Rain pings on the rusty tin roof overhead, and the dampness begins to seep in through the cardboard covering the inside of the mud walls and up through the dirt floor below. She has two other children, boys, age 10 and 14, but they are not here during the day. It’s a Wednesday, but they’re not at school either. They have a more important responsibility: food. The division of labor in this household is, sadly, not too uncommon. The mother, baby on her back, finds work where she can, washing clothes for slightly “wealthier” families living in this urban slum. Maybe she can find work 3 to 4 days out of the week, and maybe she can earn enough to pay the 500 shilling ( $8 ) house rent at the end of each month. That is barring any extraneous expenses, such as medical bills, new clothes, supplies for the baby… anything. Her boys take care of food for the family. They leave at 6AM each morning for the streets, to beg and to collect scraps of plastics and metal for recycling, which they turn in for 40-50 shillings, so they can feed themselves, and then bring home whatever food and money they can to their mother in the evening. One meal a day is all they can afford. And despite free primary education in Kenya, the mother can’t afford the uniforms, the registration fees, or the school supplies. Her boys are what UNICEF classifies as “on” the street children. They leave for the streets in the morning, but return home to their families at night, and compromise around 2/3’s of street children in Eldoret. The fourteen year old tells us, “Who am I, the father?” The division of labor is harsh… but real.