About

Walk Against Crime will raise money to bring a group of dancers from a slum in Nairobi to Britain, and to extend the project to reach as many young people as possible.

Milton Obote and Jeremy Piercy   Boys in the dancing troupe

In Spring 2013, Jeremy Piercy, Kathleen Scanlan and Milton Obote will be walking from Lands End to John O’Groats to support a community project in Nairobi which gets street kids off the streets and away from crime.

  • Jeremy Piercy is founder/MD of Shared Earth Ltd
  • Milton Obote is manager of the jewellery workshop in Mathare, Nairobi
  • Kathleen Scanlan is director of Zuri Design

Mathare, Nairobi’s second largest slum, until recently had a crime rate of 80%. With no work or schooling and nothing to do except hang around street corners, most young people get involved in theft, drugs and prostitution, usually around the age of 13 or 14. Murder is common and HIV/AIDS is rampant.

A fantastic project has been set up by local people to change all this. Its aim is to engage the youth in activities, provide work and train them to earn for themselves, rehabilitate drug users, prostitutes and criminals and encourage young people to take a full part in society. Already, with community policing by ex-gangsters, they claim to have reduced the crime rate from 80% to just 5%.

The girls' turn to put on a show The girls' turn to put on a show School children in Nairobi

A jewellery workshop employs about 20 teenagers and young adults, and in a local field, football training takes place every day. Nearby, dance sessions and training in acrobatics are held daily in a community centre. Many other activities are planned. The dancing is technically imperfect – but the teenagers are so full of enthusiasm that they are absolutely enthralling.

These are street kids who have never travelled, but their lives have already been massively changed by having something positive to do. When Jeremy (Shared Earth) and Kathleen (Zuri design) promised to organise a tour of Britain for them insummer 2013, they could not believe it.

After school play The girls' turn to put on a show Mathare slum Nairobi

To raise funds for this tour, Jeremy and Kathleen will be taking time off work to walk from Land’s End to John O‘Groats. Ex-street child Milton Obote, now manager of the jewellery workshop in Mathare, will be walking with them. He will be telling his story on the way. John Mucheru, a community leader in the slum, also hopes to walk for 600 miles.

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