From Street Boy to Hairdresser, with a Little Help from Revlon

Two years ago, Juma was sleeping in the streets. His home was a cardboard shelter that he had constructed on the rough pavements of Buru Buru, about two kilometres from SOS Children's Village Nairobi. He was making a pittance of a living by collecting discarded plastic and paper, selling it for anything between Ksh 1 and Ksh 3 a kilo. It would take him and his friends a week to earn Ksh 150 (150 Kenyan shillings are approximately two US dollars).

A literacy class at SOS Social Centre Nairobi (Photo: Hilary Atkins)


Juma walks off the catwalk with his