TV Documentary, 45 mins, 2019
Director: Jasmin Baumgartner

In a classroom near Nairobi’s Mukuru slum, schoolchildren pay rapt attention to the words of Sister Mary Killeen, a nun who arrived in Kenya 40 years ago to set up schools for disadvantaged children. “We rely too much on academic education. We also have to teach parents to support and encourage their children. Somebody with the ability to dance well must also have the ability to act intelligently. David Beckham wasn’t good in school. But he is successful, isn’t he?”, Sister Mary asks the pupils, encouraging them to discover and develop their own talents.

And some children do thrive, despite growing up with tap water dyed blue by waste near rubbish dumps populated by pigs and marabou storks in the endless sea of corrugated iron of Nairobi’s slums.

In this documentary by Jasmin Baumgartner, young talents including a rapper, a chess player, musicians and a painter tell their stories – as do the people who help them make the best of themselves and their abilities.