As someone who has lived close to informal settlements her whole life, I can say that there is much more to the stereotypes. It is time we educate ourselves on those living conditions and try meeting the needs of these people. Informal settlements are only a result of our failing system and most people don’t really have other options then to relocate. For example, the mountain of Pelerin(Port-au-Prince, Haiti) has been occupied by victims of the earthquake that the government has failed to relocate after the incident. As the social inequality carries itself from the architecture to the spatial organization of the city, some informal settlements are luckier than others. Pelerin is one of those where it is situated right behind a working area (‘formal settlements’) so people somewhat have access to a road where they can travel and access their jobs, schools and more.
I believe that if most of these informal settlements had the help and resources they lacked, they shouldn’t be looked down upon and I would go as far as to say they wouldn’t even classify as ‘informal settlements’. To think that all this technological advancement we are always so proud to talk about cannot be of use to help others...
What good is it if it only benefits a portion of the population? Are the people in these ‘informal settlements’ not part of the population?
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