Empowering Women With HIV/AIDS

Over the last few months, I feel like God has really put certain people in my life for a reason. Since the New Year started I have been working really closely with women and children living with HIV. It’s common that maybe 1 out of 4 people you meet in Kenya might have HIV, but it’s not so common to find people with HIV that are strong and proud, and speaking out on the disease. It’s a challenge to encourage them to not see it as a death sentence but like any other disease that they have to take medicine for. Many seclude themselves from their families because they feel outcast. They stigmatize themselves so much, that they cannot hear any words encouragement you give them. Then they get sicker and sicker because of the stigma, the negative outlook, and the depression weakens their immune system. The majority either give up or they ignore that it’s real. Many people I have counseled cannot accept that they have it, even after many years of knowing they are HIV+. They lie to themselves and say to me “God has healed me because of my faith. I don’t have HIV.” Yet, they have never gone to the hospital to get re-tested and they refuse to. You see them getting sicker, losing weight, coughing all the time from TB. As much as I counsel them and speak truth to them, I cannot force them to walk into the doctor’s office with me. It’s been so hard to visit some of them in their homes and see them wasting away because they have already given up before they even gave it a fighting chance. The stigma is wrapped up in their culture. It is almost impossible to change a whole culture, especially over night.

That’s why I have been so encouraged by a certain group of women in a nearby slum. These women are strong and are fighters. They know they don’t want to depend on their husbands anymore. In a country where the average husband is a drunkard, has multiple wives, dead or nowhere to be found, these women are choosing to not let that keep them down. They want to be self-sustaining, they are choosing to live positively, talk about their problems and issues openly and seek help. I meet with these women and their children once a month at Nakuru Miracle Center, a Redeemed Gospel Church in a slum in Nakuru. The pastor of this church is awesome, his name is Reverend George Nyori and he is fiery and passionate about serving the poor and the community. Pastor Nyori is a professor at The University of Nairobi, the head pastor of Redeemed Gospel Church, and also travels doing motivational speeches and evangelism. His wife, Rahab and him support these 40 women every month, they have been giving them 5 kgs of Unga (maize flour) every month. They have also stood by these women through their sickness and even sometimes death, as some have passed away in the last year. They have helped the family bury them and provide for their needs.

We meet with these women every month, I discuss health topics related to HIV such as nutrition, side effects of ARVs and adherence to the drugs, how to prevent passing HIV to their babies, etc. They ask me questions that they are afraid to ask in front of other people. They are honest about their sicknesses and their struggles. We encourage them and they help each other.

Through talking with Pastor George and his wife, we are realizing that these women are ready for something else. They want to know a skill, trade or something that can earn them money so they don’t have to depend on the Church or their husbands for continued financial support. The prices of food are going up through the dry season, and its difficult for this church to continue to provide flour for them. These women are so eager to learn and work. Last week I brought my friend, Naomi and she taught the women how to bake cakes using their normal “jiko” or charcoal burner they have at home. She taught them how to decorate them, make them look beautiful enough to sell and earn a profit from them. The women were taking notes and so excited to try it themselves.

The church wants to take the top 20 women that are the most serious about starting a small business. They want to split them into 3 groups and do trainings for each of them in baking (cakes), computers, and tailoring. After completing a four-month training they will be able to get small loans from the church to start their business. Every week in order to get more money from the church; they have to pay back what they borrowed. They have already started this loan program with another group of women who were poor and it has been successful. But now they want to start it for these women living with HIV. We know and believe that if these women with HIV are working, they won’t have time to get discouraged about their illness and it will keep them healthier and happier. But its true that these women do get sicker more often and cannot push themselves like women who are just poor. They have to pay attention to their bodies, go to the hospital when they feel ill, get proper nutrition and plenty of sleep. The church is trying to raise money to help these women go through a 4-month training. The training costs only 80 dollars for one woman to go through 4 months of training and it would be a one-time donation and then the church would take over helping them with loans.


If anyone is interested in helping sponsor a woman, please feel free to contact me and we can get these women started. Or if at your workplace, you all wanted to pitch in some money to sponsor a woman, please let me know. We think the best way to send money is through Western Union. And we can send you a picture and the name of the women you are sponsoring. We are hoping that they will be able to start the training in April/May. If you are interested in speaking directly with Pastor Nyori I can give you his contacts as well.

Thanks for listening to me ramble…hope you all have a blessed week!