Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Kenya: July 12

Today I met with 25 people who are HIV positive. We met in a small room of a building which serves as a clinic both for HIV/AIDS patients, as well as other patients who require medical services.

About a year ago, the youths with whom I work in Kenya told me that they had started a chicken farm. Like I said in a previous post, this farm is used to donate eggs to people in the three communities who we work with who have recently been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. They are asked to acknowledge their disease, come forward for treatment, and those who ask are provided some eggs as a show of support from the community of youths, as well as giving them the few nutrients that eggs provide.

I walked into a small room and these 25 people were seated on a number of benches, and before me I found the majority were elderly women, a number of men, and two children. The volunteer who is in charge of the group, who calls themselves PLWA (People Living With AIDS) gave each person a chance to speak, gave me a chance to speak to them, and we just had a discussion for a while. The HIV/AIDS crisis here, though perhaps not as bad as some other countries in Africa, is still terrible. Aside from the obvious health effects, there are significant social stereotypes that are increasingly difficult to overcome. A woman of 80 stood up, leaning on her walking stick, and told me that people do not greet or speak to her because they know that she is HIV positive. When she said this many of the others in the room nodded in agreement, as they too have the same experiences in their villages. This practice on its own demonstrates that there is a long distance to go both in terms of prevention as well as information in general society, both here and abroad, as to what HIV/AIDS is, and how it can be dealt with in a proper manner.

After the meeting which lasted about an hour, I got to speak to a number of them personally and they told me how the disease afflicted their livs. They told me how they are grateful for the eggs that we provide, no matter how small a gesture it is, and I informed them that we would be meeting with them next Tuesday to distribute the eggs to them. We stressed that their plight is the plight of the whole country, and that throughout our peace building efforts, we would also try to bring people together to help fight this disease, boost awareness of it from all levels in our particular village, and do what we can to help. It was a really eye opening experience, especially seeing the number of elderly woman who were afflicted, and it upset me to know how difficult it is to be open about it here. It is one thing to not be open about it in a society where HIV/AIDS is not such a massive problem like at home, but here, where in some parts of the country 30% of the people are afflicted, the only way to overcome this disease is by finding out your status, and seeking assistance. The youths here are acutely aware of the massive step that is required to admit that you have this condition, and so they decided that the chicken project would be just a small way to help people cope and show that not everyone in society feels the way that others do.

Aside from that visit, later in the day we visited a peace club that I helped set up the last time I was here at Agai Primary School, near Sondu. We spoke to a group of 30 students, they told us the progress that they had made with their club, and shared some of their ideas. I told them that I'd give them $50 if they come up with a good idea in one week that they can use the money for, and even before I left the room they started brainstorming what they could do. This visit showed how important it is to continue to engage the youths, in particular the students, who want to learn, who want to make a difference, and who have the ability to spread various messages amongst their peers.

Otherwise, just got back to the office, and we are going to have dinner soon. Dinner tonight consists of Chapatis (African pancakes), samosas filled with peas, some vegetables, mango, and I am treating myself and two others to beer. Mmmm warm beer....

Courtney and Joe arrive tomorrow from Nairobi, and I'm really excited for some company and to see what we can do together!

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