This book is one of the outcomes of a collaborative research project entitled ‘CBOs within the official development aid system in Kenya’. It brought together activists and scholars from the VU Amsterdam, HOYMAS, Ghetto Foundation and British Institute of East Africa. This research project uses what we call in academia, engaged scholarship.

Engaged scholarship not only expects that through its methods it can make valuable theoretical contributions, difficult to obtain otherwise, but equally and perhaps at times even more important, it aims to make a difference for those groups and organizations  involved in the research as well as have some broader social impact beyond the involved communities. One of the key principles on which  it is grounded is that those who daily experience marginalization have a much better idea of what is needed, what stories need to be told than someone from outside.

The book creates a space for two very different, but both marginalized and stigmatized groups to tell their stories: gay sex workers who are members of an activist Community Based Organization (CBO) HOYMAS and youth living and working in the slums of Mathare, who are members of the activist CBO Ghetto Foundation.

The publication consists of two volumes:

• Volume A: Life as a Male Sex Worker by HOYMAS
• Volume B: Life as a Youth in Mathare by Ghetto Foundation