Kenyan Slum

The goal of the Girl Effect – a primary global initiative of the Nike Foundation – is to eliminate poverty by empowering and supporting adolescent girls in developing countries throughout the world. As a lead-up to an hours-long brainstorming session of top Nike executives from around the world, the Foundation felt it was critical to educate the team about the realities that many girls and women face every day by exposing them to the harsh conditions of the Kibera slum in Kenya. However, coordinating a trip for these 250 far-flung execs was a logistical impossibility.

The Foundation turned to Figure Plant to fully transform an event room on the Nike campus into an alley of Kibera, complete with real dirt and animals, oppressive heat and a custom soundtrack. With input from Girl Effect Director Brooke Van Roekel who had spent time in Kibera, we even recreated the distinct, pungent smell. As part of their Corporate Leadership Training, unsuspecting executives would be led through the Kibera experience to reach the brainstorm session.

Executives were viscerally moved by what they saw, heard, felt and smelled. In the transportive experience, visitors could imagine what it’s like to have home be a place without comfort and riddled with dangers. The freshly challenged executives brainstormed solutions for Girl Effect that exceeded the Foundation’s greatest hopes. The Foundation even kept the experience in place for an extra day and encouraged the entire Nike campus to walk through it.