In rural Kenya youth groups use oral and dance traditions  to raise awareness about HIV.  This group, called Janga Gumu, performs locally near the Ziani Primary School. Performance groups deliver messages about the hardships and challenges faced by orphans and vulnerable children. CRS supports these youth and 3,300 others in the Kilifi area with a range of support.

In Kenya, an estimated 1.6 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Through community-based assistance from programs such as The Children Behind project, orphans and other vulnerable children are receiving the social, physical, medical, emotional and educational support they need to live more healthy, happy lives. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

A year ago, Pili Ramadhan was completely bedridden. Today she shares how assistance from the USAID-funded AIDS and Population Health Integrated Assistance II (APHIA II) Coast project in Malindi, Kenya, has helped her live positively with HIV. She is particularly grateful for the daily visits from her assigned community health worker, Teresia Umazi.

There was a time when I was bedridden. I was taken care of and recovered completely. Now you can see how I am, don’t you? I take my drugs every day since I started ART [antiretroviral therapy] last year in April. Pass on my gratitude to all the staff of APHIA II.

Pili deeply appreciates the support she receives from the CRS-supported APHIA II project and the community health worker Teresia who visits her regularly. Photo by Gilbert Namwonja/CRS

APHIA II is always with me. It doesn’t take a long time before someone from APHIA II pays me a visit. I have received so much from the project that I really do not expect much more.

Teresia is like my mother. She is always with me, and she looks after me in every way. Because I live close to her, she visits me every day. Because of her, I have received a lot of things from the APHIA II project—things like disinfectants, soap and flour.

I have also received a net and a mattress, and I have been given advice on how to prevent infections. Now I sleep soundly, and mosquitoes cannot reach me. In the past, I used to sleep on a mat but now I sleep on a comfortable mattress, and I am thankful for this.

Teresia has also taught me about nutrition, the benefits of eating vegetables—how instead of going on hungry I should eat various fruits like mangoes and bananas. She also advised me to plant pigeon peas so I could have vegetables nearby. And she supplied me with pigeon pea seeds to plant.

She introduced me to SILC [Savings and Internal Lending Communities], which has been helpful to me. When my child is sent away from school on a short notice for nonpayment of an examination fee, I can ask my SILC group to provide me with an instant loan. My children also benefit from the project and all the support I receive. They will also receive school uniforms.

Teresia and I encourage each other a lot, more so because we are both members of a SILC group. Her words of encouragement mean a lot to me, especially when my health was very poor and I felt low, constantly wondering how I would live. That was when she encouraged me not to worry and assured me that she would support me. Her encouragement brought great joy to my heart.

Justin Bartkus, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, recently returned from touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya with his mother, CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo. Here, Justin shares impressions from project visits in Kenya.

June 1, 2008—I actually am writing this from home in South Bend, but only because we were without Internet access for our last three or four days in Kenya! We did and saw so many things that it would be impossible to describe them all.

Two of our days in Kenya were spent in Mombasa, a hot and humid (and very poor) city in the southeast of the country on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Here we visited an AIDS clinic, witnessed a support group meeting for married couples living with HIV and ventured into an urban slum. We also spent time in Nairobi visiting with the papal nuncio to Kenya and the local cardinal. I’d like to comment on two of our experiences in particular, as they both left a deep impression on me.

First, while in Mombasa, our CRS delegation had the opportunity to visit the home of a recipient of HIV treatment supplied through the local Catholic Church in partnership with CRS. The woman with whom Archbishop Kurtz, Kenya country director Ken MacLean and I met was named Selena. She was an
incredibly inspiring woman.

Selena and her son with members of the delegation.

Selena’s husband died in 2002, and she has five children. Last year, she received the news that she had tested positive for HIV. She is a tenant in a small mud house with corrugated steel roofing. She pays 400 Kenyan shillings a month (about $6.50—not cheap for her) to rent a mere two rooms of the house.

It is hard to imagine how agonizing it is to learn that one has the virus; she knew that her life would never be the same. Yet she faithfully takes her antiretroviral drugs and has had the courage to head up a support group for other women living with HIV in the neighborhood—not an easy task considering how people with HIV, especially women, are often stigmatized and belittled in this culture. Selena is also an active participant in a local savings and internal lending community (SILC), which helps empower disenfranchised women to assert economic independence. She was not only courageous but also very funny, pleasant and good-willed. You could tell that she had a huge heart, and even though her life must have flashed before her eyes when she learned of her HIV status, she has remained strong (and her youngest son is really cute, see the picture!). To see someone who lives life with such fullness in spite of such difficult circumstances illustrates what true hope looks like and how it translates to action.

Another of our stops in Mombasa was the office of the Coastal Interfaith Council of Clerics (CICC). In response to the political violence earlier this year in Kenya, a group of local Muslim, Catholic, Protestant and Hindu religious leaders banned together to examine the roots of these conflicts and preach messages of peace to their congregations. Undoubtedly, many of these men met resistance from their flocks; in such times of upheaval, cooperation and solidarity are often trampled by division and vengeance. In the Mombasa region, the work of the CICC was certainly felt in dissolving the religious tensions that followed the controversial elections. The ironic thing was that the conflicts between Muslims and Christians on the coast were really not about religion at all. When resources are scarce and land is contested, opposing groups will latch onto religious differences as a justification for prejudice and violence toward each other, even though this is not the real problem.

We heard one story about how Catholic Archbishop Lele of Mombasa stood in front of the doors of a mosque that was about to be burned by a mob of angry young Christians. He told them that in order to burn the mosque, they’d have to kill him first. Hearing that, the mob laid their torches down. What tremendous courage.

I also was impressed by the fact that the clerics of the CICC admitted that there did exist tension among them several months ago when they first met, and to an extent, there still does. Fortunately, theological differences didn’t prevail over the urgent need for collaboration in resisting the post-election religious violence. I thought it tremendously wise that they have postponed theological debate so as not to let those differences get in the way of the work they have to do. The CICC is a shining example of leaders of various religions coming together in effective collaboration without reducing their respective faiths to a watered-down, “least common denominator” belief system.

Justin Bartkus, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, is currently touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya with his mother, CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo. Here, Justin shares more impressions from the field.

(more…)

CRS continues to respond to the post-election crisis in Kenya. Recently, CRS and the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret assisted 1,500 farmers displaced by the violence by providing them with vouchers redeemable for seed and fertilizer—critical aid to avoid food shortages. Johnson Irungu, CRS Kenya agricultural unit manager, spoke with Peter Mwaniki Muchiri from Yamumbi village to learn more about the gradual return to farming. (more…)

CRS continues to respond to the post-election crisis in Kenya. Recently, staff from CRS and the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret trained 18 volunteers to serve as hygiene promoters in camps in the Eldoret area of western Kenya. One volunteer, Milka Nyambura Kariuki, lives with 2,000 other displaced people in the Burnt Forest camp. Here she shares how she is working with other volunteers to teach residents about improving camp sanitation and personal hygiene:

Volunteer hygiene promoter Milka Nyambura Kariuki is helping her fellow residents improve sanitation in the camp they are living in after being displaced by the post-election violence in Kenya. Photo by Gilbert Namwonja/CRS

Here I educate community members on hygiene and how to keep our neighborhood clean. Eighteen of us were trained, and later on we divided ourselves into different hygiene promotion groups. I was placed in the hygiene education group. In our group, the activities that we carry out include educating people on how to keep their water containers clean, how to boil water and how to use latrines well.

We also trained people on how to wrap food well because of contamination by house flies. We were taught that house flies can cause diseases like diarrhea, vomiting and even headaches.

As a result of our activities, we have witnessed change in the camp. Our IDP camp has become very clean. For example, the other day we carried out house-to-house visits and saw that people’s water containers were clean, food was well wrapped, and they are keeping their surroundings clean all over. Even if you visit the water points, you will find that containers are very clean. Before our activities, people also used latrines poorly, but now they use them well.

I would like to praise Catholic Relief Services very much because I did not expect to receive such training. Now I have changed as a person, and I have become a good example to others, because we were trained to be models for them. Now they practice hygiene as required.

Although peace is now holding, 150,000 people displaced by earlier violence are still living in camps. An additional 130,000 are estimated to be living with friends or relatives, too scared to return home.

Jerusha Ouma, CRS Kenya project officer for The Children Behind project, received the update below from partners working with CRS to assist 19,000 orphans affected by the HIV pandemic and other vulnerable children.

For the residents of Migori district in western Kenya, life has radically changed since the announcement of the disputed results from the presidential election held on Dec. 27, 2007. The violent reactions of people, especially the youth, led to substantial destruction of property and loss of life. The youths barricaded the roads and burned down property belonging to people from other ethnic groups. Almost everything came to a standstill in the community.

Those who bore the brunt of the crisis included people living with HIV as well as orphans and vulnerable children. Due to inaccessible roads and the ongoing violence, people living with HIV could not access health facilities to collect their antiretroviral medications. They also couldn’t travel safely to collect food supplements provided by CRS through The Children Behind (TCB) project, a privately funded CRS initiative that provides care and support to 19,000 orphans and vulnerable children as well as their caretakers in Nyanza province.

Partner staff on the ground had to quickly come up with ways to ensure that HIV-positive project participants wouldn’t miss any of their prescribed drug dosages. Using cell phones, partner staff quickly mobilized the project’s network of community volunteers. These dedicated volunteers were asked to head out to surrounding villages to collect treatment cards from clients on antiretroviral therapy, to use the cards to pick up the drugs from area health facilities and to then return to the village to deliver the drugs to respective clients.

Using bicycles as the only mode of transport, the volunteers rode up to 20 kilometers roundtrip along small village paths to avoid the main roads blocked by rowdy youth. Volunteers used the same means to also distribute food and provide other psychosocial services to project clients. This cadre of good Samaritans demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to service by risking their own lives to ensure that clients had the medications and food they needed for survival.

“I was so scared of the rioting group youths. I could not walk to hospital to get my drugs,” said one ART client named Mary. “Thanks to the TCB volunteers who worked hard to ensure I did not miss out on the drugs. I am praying that the political problems in our country will soon be solved so that we continue to live in harmony like before.”

Children were also not spared during the crisis. They missed school for three weeks due to insecurity reasons. In one village in the Karungu area, three orphans supported by the project were also beaten up when police broke into their house searching for rioters who had just escaped from the nearby shopping center. When project staff heard of the incident, they rushed to their rescue and took them to the nearby St. Camillus hospital. The children have since been discharged and are well.

Now the situation has improved and calm has returned in the villages. And thanks to dedicated staff and volunteers, project services continue.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was quick responding to violence that erupted in Kenya following the December 27 elections, but our Nairobi-based staff has also been affected by the unrest. Here are the stories of two members of our CRS family.

Kinyanjui Kaniaru

Kinyanjui Kaniaru is an engineer focused on water and sanitation. He has worked for CRS for more than 13 years and has been a mentor to many agency employees. He worked with CRS’ East Africa region to help pull together a strategy for water and sanitation programs, and has helped CRS Kenya with projects across the country.

Like many Kenyans, Kinyanjui Kaniaru, known as KK to colleagues, closely followed the campaign pitting President Mwai Kibaki against challenger Raila Odinga, and participated in what seemed to be a relatively orderly vote on Dec. 27. And like many Kenyans, KK’s life has been overturned by the disorder that broke out in following days.

Much of the violence across Kenya has occurred along tribal lines – Kibaki is ethnically Kikuyu while Odinga is a Luo, and some of the fighting has followed that division. But scores of groups have engaged in violence and no tribe has been spared. KK serves as a spokesman for many Kenyans when he states directly: “I am first a Kenyan, nothing more, nothing less.”

(more…)