A diverse crowd of more than 40 students gathered in the Howard Thurman Center last night for a screening of the documentary Slum Survivors, a film that follows five residents of Kibera, a Nairobi, Kenya, slum.

Kibera is the second largest slum in the world, with close to 1 million people living among garbage and refuse-covered streets, according to the African Medical and Research Foundation website. 

The event’s organizer, University Professors Program senior Jamie Clearfield, returned from volunteering in Nairobi at the beginning of the spring semester and immediately turned her attention to getting the film a screening, she said.

“I figured the Howard Thurman Center would be the best venue for showing the film because I knew they were the multicultural center on campus,” Clearfield said. “I’ve seen that the best way to do these things is to go to people directly.”

Sixty percent of Nairobi residents live in slums, according to data from the Integrated Regional Information Networks, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that produced the documentary.

“I knew there was poverty, but I didn’t quite fully realize the situation,” UNI senior Victoria Waxman said.

Clearfield spent her time in Kenya living in Kibera and volunteering with the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy, a free secondary school run primarily by volunteers from the community.

“Urban poverty is something very real, both in America and abroad, and it’s something we really need to be aware of,” Clearfield said. “The urban slums are not going away, they’re getting larger.”

School of Social Work second-year graduate student and Kenya native Arnold Omondi said she thought the film accurately presented African realities.

“It definitely brought out some aspects that you wouldn’t typically see in everyday life, but people need to see those scenes in order to be affected,” Omondi said. “I think more presentations like this should be encouraged.”

UNI senior Nora King said the documentary was a reminder of her personal experience.

“I was actually working and living in the slums for a semester. The movie really brought me back,” she said. “As outsiders, we always talk about ‘poverty in Africa,’ but poverty is a very diverse thing. These people are very capable. We need to support those who are trying to make a change.”

The violence currently spreading through Kenya has only aggravated conditions in Kibera, Clearfield said. She found herself in the midst of chaos during her December visit to the country as she listened to the sounds of gunshots echoing throughout Nairobi.

“What is going on in Kenya is not just Kenya’s fight,” Clearfield said. “They are fighting for basic democratic rights and basic justices, and it should be everyone’s fight.”