Houses made of cardboard, plywood, metal and boards. This is what the vast areas of the poor in Brazil look like, forming a dense ring around the cities. It is estimated that every second resident of Rio de Janeiro lives there. The inhabitants of these places often live off street trading. They sell everything they can, often drugs or their own body. Tourist excursions to such places are usually supervised. Few people have the courage to explore the poor "at their own risk."
2. Manila, Philippines
More than 20% of Manila's residents live in slums, and this number is increasing every year. There is no need to look for such areas for a long time - most of Manila is such. And the most terrible are the quarters of the Navas district, where desperate people, not finding a better place, settled in the cemetery. Everywhere rot, garbage and fragments of corpses. You need to walk carefully so as not to end up in the gutter. The smell and atmosphere are terrible.
3. Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya
The fame of the slums, located almost in the very center of the Kenyan capital, has long spread far beyond the borders of the country. An excursion to Kibera is the second tourist attraction, after the African safari, for which Kenya is famous. Hundreds of tourists come here and many celebrities known for their magazine covers. Do they understand the risks? According to statistics, more than 800 thousand people live in Kibera, of which 20% are HIV-infected. These are the largest slums in Africa.
4. Sultanbeyli in Istanbul, Türkiye
In the middle of the 20th century, in the suburbs of Istanbul, it was decided to build a settlement for Turkish emigrants, which, over time, was transformed into a huge area for the poor. According to statistics, more than 250 thousand people live in Sultanbeyli today. The expansion of the slums may have been helped by Turkish legislation, according to which, if a house was built in one night, it can remain in its place even if a building permit has not been obtained.
5. Osaka, Japan
Japan appears to us as a modern country, and everything that happens there is viewed from this point of view. However, even here there is a place that has become a cause for shame for the local authorities. This is Kamagasaki, the largest illegal settlement in the Land of the Rising Sun. The poorest residents of Osaka live in this area. Nobody knows exactly how many there are because most people live here without registration. It is not so easy to get here - many years ago the name of this place was removed from the maps. Since 1996, this place has been officially known as Airin.
6. Dharavi in Mumbai, India
More than 1 million people live in these largest slums in Asia. They are located in an area the size of London's Hyde Park. The world learned about this place after the appearance of the film "Slumdog Millionaire", which also failed to convey the true picture. It is frightening that such a huge settlement of the poor in Mumbai is located on the outskirts of the financial capital of India, next to the world of the rich. And only a wall separates them.
7. Petare in Caracas, Venezuela
Caracas is considered the most dangerous city in Latin America, and, at the same time, its largest slums. Here, every day, many homeless people try to survive, huddling in hastily glued "burrows" made of cardboard and rags. The situation is worst in the Petare area. For years, it was a world of underage murderers and thieves living in garbage heaps. Organized gangs have now invaded the area. Every day, at least a dozen inhabitants of Petare alone die there.
Of the 21 million people living in Mumbai, 62% (or approximately 13 million people) live in slums throughout the city.
Most slum dwellers subsist on $1 a day or less, spending 10 hours a day working hard in the hot sun, using the local river as a shower or toilet, and at the end of the day falling asleep on sidewalks or under bridges.
This is what the real one looks like.
When I was traveling in India and stopped by Mumbai, I spent several hours in the slums, which are considered the largest in Asia and one of the largest in the world. The slums are called Dharavi. You must have heard about them - this is where the protagonist of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, Jamal, lived, and this is where most of the film's scenes were filmed. 
Walking along Dharavi was the most enlightening experience of my entire trip to India, and perhaps of all my travels. This place is so populated that it seems like a separate city inside Mumbai, with its narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and huge piles of garbage. 
Before explaining what a person who first came to Dharavi sees and feels, I will give a few facts:
About 1 million people live on an area of 2.5 square kilometers. Dharavi is the most densely populated place on planet Earth.
- The average salary here is from $1 to $2 per day.
- Dharavi is the most productive slum in the world with an annual turnover of almost a billion dollars.
- In Dharavi, there is 1 toilet for about 1,450 people.
- The average life expectancy of a Dharavi resident is less than 60 years.
- The slums are divided into communities according to religion in the ratio: 60% Hindus, 33% Muslims, 6% Christians and 1% others.
- Only men are allowed to work in Dharavi's workshops. 
The biggest surprise for me was how incredibly organized life was in Dharavi. Today, this area of Mumbai is a gigantic factory where people work - under difficult conditions - but work. The slums produce goods that are exported throughout India and around the world. You can even order goods from Dharavi online. 
The slums are divided into industrial and residential parts.
In the residential part, you can meet Indians from all over the country who came here from rural areas, as well as local residents from the state of Maharashtra. There is no infrastructure in the residential area: no roads, no public toilets. This part of Mumbai was the dirtiest populated place I have ever seen in my life. The area is divided according to religion: Hindus live in one part, Muslims in another, Christians in the third. In the residential part there are several temples and churches. 
The houses here are small and densely packed with people. I managed to look into one of the houses and see how the locals live: seven people were sleeping on the floor in a small room, next to each other, almost clinging to each other. None of them had a pillow or mattress. There was no kitchen or toilet in the house.
Life in the industrial part is chaotic, it is very hot, dirty and smells terrible. There are more than 7,000 different businesses and 15,000 one-room workshops that are filled with thousands of people working from dawn to dusk without air conditioning. When I walked through the industrial part, I saw only men. The men were everywhere. When I asked an Indian friend (I alone did not dare to walk here) why I see only men in the workshops, he replied that it was forbidden for women to work in Dharavi.
The most common goods in Dharavi are pottery, leather, plastic and iron products. There are several smaller industries that deal with recycling. Moreover, they recycle garbage - everything that we in Russia and in the West are accustomed to throw away. Perhaps some of your rubbish that you threw away yesterday will end up here in Dharavi in a month, and they will make something out of it that they can sell. 
I'm not just talking about paper, plastic, leather, aluminum or glass waste. I've seen workers picking out some parts from old VHS tapes from the 90s, then to make something out of them. I have seen workshops that recycle the soap bars that hotel guests leave in their rooms.
After several hours of walking through the slums, I was able to go beyond stereotypes and look at Dharavi not just as the "largest slum in the world", but as an active regulated community with a strong economy. The inhabitants of the slums are very industrious. Despite the difficult conditions, they all call this place their home.
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Author.
Ask any child today what they want to be in the future, and every third child will answer: president. Looking at the luxury that most heads of state live in, there is nothing strange. But not all "guarantors of the Constitution" can boast of mansions on the islands and their own aircraft. Some have chosen a completely different path. And among them the hero of this review is the poorest president in the world.
Palaces, islands and golden toilets - this is how you imagine the life of any president. It is noteworthy that the poorer the country, the richer its head lives. But he took this system and broke it Jose Mujica- ascetic, vegetarian and former president of Uruguay.
José, who is affectionately called El Pepe in his homeland, is not a typical president. When he took office in 2010, the first thing he did was refuse to move to the residence assigned to him. Mujica preferred his old farm, inherited from his father, to a luxurious villa.
A dirt road connects the farm with the capital. Jose, his wife and two dogs live in a small house: an old labrador and a three-legged mongrel named Manuela.
José has always loved gardening and working on the ground. Before the presidency, he and his wife, without employees, grew flowers for sale. What Lucia (wife) continued to do when José became the #1 political star.
In addition to the declared property farm, El Pepe owns an old 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. The cost of the car is 1800 US dollars.
Do you know what the salary of the president of Uruguay is? 12500 thousand dollars. And all five years of presidency Jose gave 90% of this amount to charity. Thus, his monthly income remained at the level of the national average wage, which at that time was $775.
Why, having seized upon great financial opportunities, the former president did not use them? Jose has always adhered to radical left views. For which he was wounded 6 times "at the barricades" and spent 14 years in prison, mostly in a solitary cell. And this could not but affect the outlook of the future political leader.
The former president capaciously fit his philosophy into one statement: “They call me the poorest president, but I don’t feel poor. The poor are those who work only to live in luxury. They want more and more all the time… But if you don’t have enough things… then you have more time for yourself.”
Probably, if more Important People lived according to this principle, the world would be a much better place. In the meantime, in order of contrast, we suggest taking a look,
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, has the largest slum in Africa. In general, if you simply say "the largest slums in Africa", then it is not very clear how it is. For some reason, everyone presents Africa as an endless slum.
But here is a special case. Kibera is a city within a city. Some 5 kilometers from the center of Nairobi - and you are already in another world. There is such a boring phrase "urban jungle". In the case of Kibera, it is absolutely true. It is believed that the name of the area comes from the Nubian word kibra, which just means "forest" or "jungle". But, of course, this is not the only thing.
01. How many people live in Kibera is almost impossible to determine. State census takers, if they look here, then for show, and each international organization has its own rough estimates. 
02. Data vary: figures are given from 200,000 to 2 million people. Most likely, the actual population of Kibera is somewhere between 200,000 and 800,000. The most plausible study counted 270,000 people. That is, in Kibera, you can comfortably accommodate all the residents of Novorossiysk. Or Syktyvkar. Or the whole Khimki) 
03. There is electricity in Kibera, but not in all houses. Water supply and other amenities will probably never come here: it will be cheaper to demolish everything and rebuild the area. A tap with water can be one for several dozen houses. You can forget about the “normal” shower and toilet from the point of view of a European: there are only public ones, and there are very few of them. 
04. Once upon a time, Kibera was formed as a ghetto thanks to the 1922 colonial law on vagrancy. He ordered all Africans to settle in a certain district on the outskirts of Nairobi, so as not to embarrass the white population with their appearance. At first, Nubian soldiers lived here, serving the interests of Great Britain, then they began to rent land to guest workers from rural areas. Gradually, the territory became denser. 
05. Back in the late 1920s, Kibera was going to be demolished and its residents settled among the rest of the inhabitants of Nairobi. But this was opposed by the white population. 
06. After Kenya's independence, Kibera effectively became an illegal settlement. The state has become the owner of the land on which the slums stand, although the Nubian elders make demands on it. The settlement still does not have any unambiguous status, so the state is not at all interested in improving the situation here. The authorities decided that the best way to solve Kibera's problems was to evict everyone, but this initiative failed (more on that below). 
07. Contemporary art 
08. Now it is no longer a suburb: Kibera is located just 5 kilometers from the center of Nairobi. The slums are divided into about a dozen villages, each inhabited by several tens of thousands of people. Since waste is not removed from here for years, houses are often built directly on and from garbage. 
09. Sometimes garbage is set on fire, and then everything is enveloped in acrid smoke. 
10. Main street in the slums. Along the main street is a deep ditch for water. 
11. Wooden bridges are thrown across the ditch. As you can see, there are no sewers in Kibera as such. Rather, there is, but it is open. The problem of human and animal waste is very acute. There are organizations that are trying to build public toilets that can also produce methane for local residents, but so far this is a drop in the ocean. 
12. This is how people live. 
13. Slum population - representatives of several ethnic groups. The most common in Kibera are Luo (the most famous Luo is the father of Barack Obama), Luhya, Nubians, Kikuyu and Kamba. In some villages, the population has mixed, others remain more or less mono-ethnic and are controlled by the respective ethnic groups. 
14. Garbage is thrown right out the door. 
15. Sometimes houses are built right on steep slopes, and people climb into their homes like mountain goats. 
16.
17. The child is sitting on the porch 
18. Entrance to the store 
19. Glasses 
20. This is how people go to their yard. 
21. Or so. 
22. Sometimes the ditch is completely littered with debris. 
23. Cyber is absolutely safe! 
24. Hairdresser 
25.
26. An ordinary street in a slum looks like this. 
27. And this is an ordinary house. The cost of a house here is only $300. 
28. Church 
29. One of the main problems of Kibera is healthcare. 
30. AIDS and tuberculosis for the locals are not some distant, almost mythical diseases (as they used to think in Russia), but practically the norm. Cholera outbreaks, even more so. Medical organizations distribute drugs and contraceptives free of charge in the slums, but almost always encounter unforeseen difficulties. 
31. A few years ago, volunteers who came to Kibera were shocked. Their work to combat the spread of AIDS and tuberculosis was complicated by a completely wild obstacle. The fact is that TB drugs and AIDS maintenance drugs work best when taken with food. But many patients simply did not have enough food for these medicines to work at all! 
32.
33.
34. In general, ordinary city life is in full swing here: shops, cafes are open, people go to work, wash clothes, cook food. You can earn up to $2 per day in Kibera. 
35. Masts with spotlights have recently been installed so that it is light at night. This allows you to fight crime. 
36. Sewerage sometimes goes in pipes, but more often shit just pours into a groove in the middle of the sidewalk. 
37. The sidewalk is covered with boards. Houses are built of clay and branches. 
38. Street 
39. Kibera is spread over the slopes of the hill, a very beautiful place. 
40.
41. On the right is a sewer ditch. 
42. Nairobi is the headquarters of the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), so Kibera has received increased attention from international organizations. However, it is not so easy to reconstruct slums. 
43. First, the still high level of crime prevents this. In Kibera, it is impossible to leave building materials in one place at least for a short time: they will be immediately stolen. Although everything seems to be quiet and peaceful. 
44.
45. They say that even people whose house was swept away by a storm are forced to stay inside or on the roof (if it survived) in order to protect their home from thieves. 
46. Secondly, most houses and shacks simply do not have a foundation. And it is not clear how to build it on such soil. 
47. Kibera is not just sitting in the middle of a landfill. Kibera is a dump. Many dwellings are built directly on garbage heaps, and no one cares about the fragility of such structures. Some shacks live until the first heavy rainstorm or hurricane. And everything would be fine if it were not for the domino effect: inferior houses, falling apart, destroy stronger ones. 
48.
49. A branch of the Uganda Railway runs right through the slums (I will talk about it tomorrow). Somewhere in Kibera there is even a railway station, but almost no one uses it: people ride matata to the center of Nairobi. 
50. Any kind of modernization is very hampered by building density. Houses literally stick to each other. Passenger cars can hardly pass where, not to mention trucks. This means that if the reconstruction program is ever fully activated, all building materials and tools will have to be brought here by hand. Another argument in favor of the supporters of the "demolish and rebuild everything" plan. However, there are almost none. 
51. The toilet is shared by the entire region. This is how the houses are. 
52. There are showers and toilets. 
53. Sale of coal, everything is cooked on coal. 
54.
55. A man drags coal to his home 
57. Shoe store 
58.
59.
60. Meat 
61. I went to the hairdresser. 
62. In 2009, the Kenyan authorities launched a resettlement program for slum dwellers. It was expected that Kibera would be finished in a maximum of 5 years. But the demolition of the area was opposed by the Nubian elders, who are also landowners, and the Supreme Court sided with the slum dwellers. So the process stalled.
They only managed to build 300 new apartments and move 1,500 people there, who must pay the state $10 a month for rent. But even here not everything was foreseen. Some people from Kibera rented out their apartments to representatives of the Kenyan "middle class" for the sake of earning money, while they themselves returned to live in the slums. 
63. If you are in Kenya, I strongly advise you to visit Kibera. Amazingly interesting place. Do not be afraid;) 
Slam tourism (traveling through the slums) is gaining more and more popularity. We decided to list the most popular places to visit, in case you want to get especially thrilled during your upcoming vacation.
Brazil
In Portuguese, slums are called favelas - they are home to the poorest part of the population. It is clear that no building plans are being carried out and the very phenomenon of slums denies any architectural planning and calculation. As a result of this, the slums of Brazil resemble a real anthill without end and edge. These are gigantic endless seas of chaotic buildings with narrow streets, poorly developed infrastructure, no sewerage and simply an outrageous level of banditry and crime. An interesting fact is that more than a third of the country's population lives in the so-called favelas. This statistic is appalling and perfectly characterizes the standard of living in Brazil.
All the major cities of Brazil have grown into slums: they are also on the outskirts, Rio de Janeiro, the city of Belen (it is the leader in terms of the area of the slums surrounding it). Slam tourism as a phenomenon appeared in Brazil back in the nineties, when it was especially dangerous for visitors to travel: constant attacks and robberies made this type of vacation extremely extreme. Now, on the contrary, the inhabitants of the favelas sell various souvenirs and drugs to tourists. In short, the market for slum travel is evolving.
India
This country has given rise to the largest slums in all of Asia. Indian Mumbai is famous for its slums throughout the world - the capital of crime and poverty. In general, India is a fairly safe country, except for the highest level of unsanitary conditions and a rather specific climate. However, will introduce you to crime and begging if you decide to visit. Hundreds of thousands of people here live below the poverty line: you will be met by dozens of children in tattered clothes who will very persistently beg for alms: pulling your sleeves, tearing out your bag, they will try to take off your watch, shoes and, in general, all your clothes.
The Bombay slums are not only people, they are also a kind of unforgettable surroundings - huge piles of garbage and plastic bags, boxes and some incomprehensible mountains of dirty tattered rags. Excursions to these areas are held quite often: three times a day and may well satisfy the demand of foreign tourists. The price for the tour is ridiculous - only about eight dollars, which is more than a solid amount for the local population. The contrast of Indian slums is especially noticeable against the backdrop of much more prosperous business districts of the capital, where everything is rolled in concrete and glass.
In general, such excursions are a rather unnatural and strange occupation: to pay money to look at the suffering and poverty of other people, while feeling like something more significant. Excursion programs often include watching homeless children and beggars, as if they were not people, but animals in the zoo. It must be said that initially slam tourism was conceived not only to see and communicate with people in poor areas, but also to somehow financially help them.
China
Chinese slums are more civilized and tidy than those in India and Brazil. Slums in China are called hutongs, and here they are usually just a concrete block of ugly skyscrapers, many of which even have air conditioning. The poverty of the local population does not lead to an extreme increase in crime, walking through the Chinese hutongs, of course, you risk getting a few stab wounds or losing your wallet, but the risk is still not as high as in Brazilian favelas or Indian poor areas. Now the Chinese authorities are actively demolishing the slum buildings, erecting elite glass high-rise buildings on the site of dilapidated houses.
Mexico
The largest slums in the world have grown around the Mexican capital - the city of Mexico City. They number about four million inhabitants, which is equal to the population of a small country. In terms of their structure, Mexican disadvantaged areas are very much like the Brazilian favelas - an exorbitant level of crime, a low quality of life, drug addiction and prostitution.
Such a deplorable situation with the standard of living and slums in the third world countries occurred for the reason that the abrupt and unnatural urbanization did not give the inhabitants of the provinces a chance to properly socialize and find their place. The result of this was the construction of villages in cities, which in essence are slums. The process of slum growth is gaining momentum every year. The areas of slums accompanying large cities, similar from space to cancerous tumors, are constantly increasing, as is the number of people living in them.
Alexey Loktionov
