Thin, little boys huddle in small groups to smoke glue while others sleep away the day on the streets. The temporary high they get will give them a sense of euphoria. It will also dull their hunger pangs.

Nearby - in dingy alleys - other kids hop over ditches filled with trash and human excrement. This is their playground.

Homes here have no running water, electricity or police protection. Food, clean water and even hope run in short supply. That’s just the reality of life in the Mathare Valley, home to 700,000 Kenyans.

Though the Mathare Valley is regarded as Africa’s second-worst slum. Marcia, eight years old, calls it home.

Three years ago, she was raped and infected with HIV. Her life expectancy now is less than seven years.

“The thing I cannot get over about this child,” says Marcia’s teacher, “is that she is always helping someone else and cares nothing about herself.”

Each day Convoy of Hope provides Marcia and 700 other impoverished children with a warm meal. But there are still tens of thousands other kids in the Mathare Valley who need help