The 8th DBSA Carnival concluded in Mathare, Nairobi over the weekend, drawing thousands of residents to an event combining grassroots sports, arts and community development. The carnival featured four flagship programs: the Slum World Cup, the Talent Show, the Art Festival and the Africa Dream Campus Reading Corner.
The event was organized by Dream Building Service Association (DBSA), and co-hosted by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and Africa Star Railway Operation Company Ltd. (Afristar). Supporting partners included UNESCO, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, the Amity Foundation, TECNO and Jiangxi Leju Sports Culture Industry Co., Ltd.
Slum World Cup
The Slum World Cup brought together 42 community teams and more than 500 young players. Zhang Zhizhong, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, and Hao Zhongwei, Secretary-General of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), attended the final match and presented awards to the winning teams. Diplomatic staff from the Chinese Embassy also joined local children on the pitch.
Many players competed barefoot or with improvised footballs on a gravel pitch. In one of the final matches, a player from Page Vision School missed a scoring chance late in the game before netting the winning goal two minutes later. Girls’ teams also competed at the tournament, wearing jerseys printed with the slogan “She can be different. She can do more.”
Talent Show
This year’s talent show, themed “Talent Chap Chap,” featured performances selected through auditions held across 24 schools and more than ten art institutions, drawing over 1,000 participants. Twenty-nine acts and 70 youth performers advanced to the final stage, with performances spanning singing, dancing, poetry recitation and a Chinese Kung Fu demonstration.
Art Festival
The art program, themed “Born to Shine,” involved 289 students from 15 community schools, who produced more than 300 paintings on the theme of hope and resilience. Four workshops were held on storybook creation, installation art, artist collaboration and Chinese bamboo weaving, involving 43 local youth and children.
The bamboo weaving workshop, supported by the UNEP International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP) and Beijing Zhizao Studio, introduced traditional Chinese craft techniques as a vocational skill for local youth and women.
Africa Dream Campus Project
The Africa Dream Campus Project (ADCP), funded by TECNO and the Amity Foundation, completed a digital management upgrade at 13 partner community schools during the event period. The upgrade included nearly 1,000 newly catalogued books and a QR-code system that allows teachers to track inventory and report damage from their phones.
Community Development
The carnival forms part of longer-term community development work in Mathare. Afristar, operator of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), continues to support local welfare initiatives, including school meal assistance, educational visits to railway facilities and volunteer-led art classes.
Following flooding in 2024 that damaged local infrastructure, community rebuilding efforts backed by DBSA have replaced damaged structures with reinforced corrugated-iron classrooms equipped with libraries.
DBSA has organized the Mathare Slum Carnival annually since its founding, positioning it as a recurring platform for youth development, cultural exchange and community partnership between Kenyan and Chinese organizations.
About Dream Building Service Association (DBSA)
DBSA is a non-profit organization supporting vulnerable groups, particularly youth and children, in African urban informal settlements. Between 2014 and 2026, DBSA implemented projects across six African countries, addressing youth education, child hunger, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction through school construction, meal programs, scholarships, sports leagues and art festivals. DBSA has built eight schools, provided meals for approximately 47,000 children, and distributed sanitary products to tens of thousands of students, reaching more than 100,000 beneficiaries to date.
DBSA Slum World Cup
Launched in 2016, the Slum World Cup is an annual football tournament organized by DBSA to promote youth development and sportsmanship. DBSA also runs a football club that trains promising players from informal settlements, offering pathway programs for underprivileged youth.
DBSA Art Festival
Established in 2015, the DBSA Art Project partners with primary and secondary schools to deliver art education and creative workshops, working with local youth artists and hosting exhibitions domestically and internationally.
DBSA Talent Show
The DBSA Talent Show provides a platform for youth in informal settlements to showcase talent in music, dance and performing arts, connecting participants with mentorship and community recognition.
African Dream Campus Project (ADCP)
Initiated in 2024 by TECNO and the Amity Foundation and implemented by DBSA, ADCP improves learning environments across East African community schools by providing desks, blackboards, reading corners and art curricula. The program currently supports nearly 100 schools across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
