Actor Nicholas Hoult has spoken about his eye-opening visit to some of Kenya’s poorest slums.

The actor recently returned from the region after spending a few days visiting two neighbouring slums in Nairobi to promote this year’s Christian Aid Week.
Hoult, who has most recently starred in Tom Ford’s A Single Man, discovered what everyday life was like for 300 families living in the Matopeni slum.
The 20-year-old described the conditions as horrific.
It was “like a music festival where you can’t get out, and the toilets never get cleaned and there’s no music”, he said.

I saw how a shower can make a big difference in someone’s life.
Actor Nicholas Hoult on his eye-opening trip.

He recalls seeing children playing near rotten sewage and remembers how the toilets had “maggots crawling up the wall and the stench was unbelievable”.
“If that was the only place you could live, I suppose you’d have to,” he said.
Hoult also visited the nearby Kiambiu slum, where he got stuck in at a community clean-up day.
“It was hard work,” he said, “Any physical exertion in this heat is difficult but the kids here do it every week.”

The actor helps at a community clean-up in Kiambiu
Kiambiu is home to 60,000 people and has a brand new, purpose-built water kiosk and toilet and shower block, which was constructed with the help of Christian Aid.
The actor believes this project has changed people’s lives.
“It’s such a simple principle that people should have access to clean water but I saw how a shower can make a big difference in someone’s life,” he explained.
“People here really want to help themselves too but they just need a kick-start to get on their way.”