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Mbita, Kenya
Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children
The Akado Women's Group (AWG), affiliated with Akado
Integrated Health, was registered in 1986 with the Department of
Culture and Social Services. The aim of the organization is to address
numerous health and socio-economic problems that affect women and
children in the Suba district of Kenya. In this community that borders
Uganda and Tanzania, HIV and AIDS presently affect 37% of the population.
AWG initially started an HIV/AIDS intervention program
to create awareness of the disease. However, their efforts were
recognized and welcomed by the Suba district, where the group now
works in four primary schools to improve the health and nutritional
status of orphans aged 3 to 13. Through this program, AWG conducts
general medical exams, offers treatment to the sick, makes follow-up
visits, and provides food. Future plans include a vocational training
workshop where older orphans will be taught carpentry skills.
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Nurses administering medication to sick child. |
Parental counseling. |
Routine medical examination of orphans. |
School Food Program for orphans. |
Children eating nutritional porridge. |
The region along the banks of Lake Victoria that borders
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania is one of the most beautiful in all of
Africa. With a mild climate, fertile land, and plenty of fishing
it was once a desirable place to live. Situated in a promontory
on the lake, surrounded by water on 3 sides, Mbita was once a prosperous
Luo fishing village. Not any more.
The Suba district has one of the poorest infrastructures
in the country, with only dirt roads that are virtually impassable
during the rainy seasons and dangerously dusty during the droughts.
There is no electricity, and telephone service is unreliable. There
is insufficient and unpredictable rainfall, which negatively impacts
the crops, livestock and fish on which these people depend for food
and commerce.
With HIV infections topping 37% of the overall population
(over 65% of the adult population) this region is now the epicenter
of the disease in Kenya.
STI/HIV/AIDS is escalated by poverty, promiscuity
and the traditional practice of 'widow inheritance.' The desperate
economy and lack of unemployment options force many young girls
and women to exchange sex for food, clothes, shoes and money-consequently
spreading the infection even further. With the increase in HIV and
AIDS-related deaths, an escalating number of children are being
orphaned. Most of these youngsters are then raised by brothers and
sisters not much older than themselves. With no adult supervisions,
they eventually drop out of school, become malnourished, and take
to the streets.
Routine medical examination of orphans. |
Nurses administering medication to sick child. |
| The year is 1986.
Enter this scene a German volunteer Inga and Margaret Odindo,
sociologist wife of a researcher visiting Mbita. The two become
friends and decide to join forces to bring the women of the
community together to tackle the burgeoning HIV/AIDS problem.
Very early on, the all-women group identifies this disease
as thriving on multiple causes and requiring a holistic response
that included addressing women’s health, economic, and
empowerment issues.
Their painstaking work to create a democratic,
women-led movement in the community begins to take shape slowly
but runs into problems of acceptance among the male village
elders. The volunteers and the women of the community toil
on and only by the mid 90s, almost 10 years since its inception,
is the Akado Women's Group fully accepted by the elders.
However, once acknowledged and accepted by the
elders, it is like a switch has gone on. The men-folk in the
community embrace the program, begin to approach the program
for advice on a variety of issues and become some of its biggest
users and supporters. Today the Akado Women's Group is a model
for comprehensive community-based response to the AIDS epidemic
in a rural setting in Africa.
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Jeremy, resident pharmacist. |
Akado lab technician Rosemary. |
The various parts of the Akado Women's Group and Akado
Integrated Health program target all members of the community including
men, women, children, elders, and visitors to the community.
Parental counseling. |
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The hallmark of the Akado Women's Group efforts is
that all the programs are interrelated and developed through input
from the local residents. These efforts include:
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Counseling and awareness building about the disease,
about the modes of transmission and also de-mystifying local myths
(i.e. claims that HIV/AIDS is a form of black-magic).
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Prevention efforts including continuous counseling
and education of young girls and women to resist unwanted sex, discussions
on good sexual relationships.
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Distribution of free condoms and a comprehensive
discussion of protection mechanisms.
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Medical testing of women and children, prenatal care
and counseling, overall health-care counseling and provision of dietary
supplements.
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HIV testing including pre and post-test counseling.
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Community-based program of caring for those suffering
from full-blown AIDS in their homes with regular visits from traveling
volunteer health workers. These CHWs (community health workers) who
are all victims of the AIDS epidemic work tirelessly to care for the
sick in the community as well as educate the family of the sick to
care for them.
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Economic development programs for women. Building
women's cooperative programs to pool their skills in stitching and
agriculture and teaching widows to manage finances and small businesses.
In addition, plans are in place to include a vocational training workshop
where older orphans will be taught carpentry skills.
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Targeting cultural practices like widow-inheritance
(that accelerate the spread of the infection) through education and
dialogue.
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Finally, a newly launched orphan education and feeding
program.
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