What is Shiboka
This is a space where women, communities, and individuals in informal settlements can share their challenges, creativity, and resilience.
Shiboka is an audio-visual 'soundbite' platform that amplifies the voices of women and communities living under extreme heat in informal settlements. Through portraits, personal narratives, and community stories, we move beyond statistics to highlight lived experiences, daily coping strategies, and creative solutions.
Shiboka celebrates resilience and agency, showing that those most affected by heat are not just surviving—they are innovating, leading, and inspiring change.
Voices of the Women
Shiboka is also a space for everyone—residents, students, creators, or anyone with a story—to share experiences of living with heat in informal settlements. Your story helps the world understand life under extreme temperatures, while showcasing local creativity and resilience.
We want to hear the voices of those living in informal settlements, those that are affected by the heat inside their houses.
SoundBites - This is their stories
Name: Lali Whantoungbe Kinsi
Location: Cotonou, Benin
Language: Tofi
Length: 3min 10 sec
Translator: Antonine Agossou
In this first Shiboka episode, recorded with the support of community leader Antoine Agossou during Inform2Build fieldwork in Benin, Lali Whantoungbe KINSI shares her story in Tofin, a local language spoken in Ganvié. A mother of seven who also cares for four orphans, she speaks about the challenges of sustaining her small resale business, relying on loans to survive, and continuing to move forward with resilience and hope despite financial hardship.
Maendeleo Self Help Group
The Maendeleo Self Help Group emerged from the collective struggles of women facing unemployment, single motherhood, and environmental degradation in their community. After realizing that table banking alone was not creating lasting change, the group transformed their efforts into a mangrove nursery initiative that combines environmental restoration with women’s empowerment and livelihood creation. Through collective contributions,training, and support from organizations such as SDI, the women are building a vision of a sustainable blue economy, aiming to protect their environment, create self-employment opportunities, and strengthen the future of their community.
Location: Mouroto Village, Mombasa, Kenya
Women’s names: Fuhara Musyoka; Salma Musyoka; Malombo Chaka; Pili Gona; Jackline Charo
Language: Swahili and English - Translated by : Bessie Sarawiwa
Our Partners
Collaborators and Supporters
Shiboka is developed in collaboration with Inform2Build and SDI, supported by researchers, storytellers, and community organizers who work together to amplify women’s and community voices.
Do you want to be a part of this?
Why Shiboka?
The name Shiboka comes from the Zulu language and is the traditional response to the greeting “Sawubona”, which means “I see you.” While Sawubona recognizes the full worth of a person, Shiboka affirms it—it means “I exist for you” and reflects the act of acknowledging someone as a complete human being.
We chose Shiboka as the name for this project because it embodies our mission: to truly see and honor the experiences, voices, and resilience of women and communities living under extreme heat.