INTRODUCTION AND TESTIMONY
By Djuneid Dulloo

From 1999-2001, I attended the International School of Kenya as my family moved from the island of Mauritius to the city of Nairobi. My life as an expatriate student was sheltered by the concern for safety; life during those two years was therefore limited to the school campus, the guarded house and popular malls.
As we drove through the city center, children came to knock at the car window begging for money and food. Realising that children in the same city had a highly contrasting social reality, the desire to try to change something about this condition was born. In 2004, while attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts , Boston and Tufts University in Massacusetts , USA , I obtained a grant of $3000 from the University College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts to travel back to Nairobi and initiate a social-art program that I conceived, Unmasking Shadows.

By carrying out an Art Education program that would enable a group of 30 children living near the Kibera Slums to express their daily life, and organizing a series of exhibitions and public art in the Nairobi community, my belief was that awareness could be enhanced about the child homelessness issue so that existing prejudices such as the idea that these children should be removed from circulation could be challenged by showing their creative and human capabilities despite their material precarity.

After the realization of the program, whose slogan was <<Integrating Street Kids through Art>>, immediate changes were noticed in the lives of the children and their community. People appreciated their magic art that embellished a run-down commercial building ÎAdams Arcade' whose direction, inspired, started to renovate their buildings and opened a recreation center for children. Social worker partner, Marylyn Mungur combined efforts with ISK Art Instructor, Liza Mackay to initiate an exchange program between the two environments. Lastly, 16 children were able to join a care center where they are provided with food, shelter and are being helped off of drugs.

Building on the successes and insights of the 2004 project, I decided to invite 9 other international artists to become part of the 2006 movement: STORIES FROM THE STREETS.