Meet Michael Mwaura

Michael Mwaura has four children and a wife, Winne Njambi. Several years ago, he was living in Mombasa, working as an administrative police officer. Around that time, he became aware of his HIV status and started deteriorating in health. He stopped working at the police station and tried his own small business selling used furniture. However, his health continued to decline and he decided to move to his family home near Limuru. Although he knew the Lord, he began to grow further from his faith as his condition worsened.

Around 2009, when he moved home, all he could do was manage some small home farming. He was struggling with work, his health, and stigma. His hope and energy were depleting until he heard about the CFA program at Assemblies of God Church in Kamirithu. In January 2010, he started the program. Over the nine months, his life was dramatically empowered.

He decided to get very involved with the program. He was so involved that the group elected him the leader of their group. To this day, many still call him “chairman”. He put the stigma behind him and now lives boldly, despite his status. He grew in his faith dramatically under the mentorship of Spiritual Counselor Paul. Now Michael loves sharing that faith with friends, family, and in the church. Through Medical Counseling with Eunice, he grew stronger, healthier and more active. So much so that he now manages several farming plots near his home, not to mention the livestock he raises and the crafts that he makes, all in his spare time!

If you were to ask someone in CARE for AIDS to give you one word to describe Michael, it would be “Empowerment”. He loves “paying it forward”, so to speak. He is constantly giving his time and energy to assist, encourage, and empower other clients who are now in the program. On many occasions, CFA has had Michael teach handcraft skills to other CFA centers around Nairobi. He has even been to Kisumu to help train CFA staff with new skills. Not only has he become an expert on the skills he was taught in the program, he has also created his own new products to sell, like beaded purses and small bags.

Over the last few weeks while Impact teams were visiting, Michael led several seminars on bead making. It was obvious that he loves what he does and always has a smile on his face. If you met him now, I doubt you could even tell all that he has been through. His story is one that I will always remember because he exemplifies empowerment for the CARE for AIDS program. That is why I am exited to share his story with you!

Becoming a Family

One of the exciting parts of our Impact Trips to Kenya this month was the chance to include several families with parents and kids.  We got to host middle school, high-schoolers, and college students, and it was amazing to experience Kenya and CARE for AIDS again through their eyes!  Following are some comments from Miles Flora, a high school student who traveled with his father and two older brothers to Kenya last week…

“Today is Saturday June 16th. We went to visit clients in their homes. It was incredible how different things are here compared to the States. There were goats walking in the middle of the streets, stray dogs, litter everywhere, even little kids using old bicycle tires as hula hoops…We passed a college here called Nairobi Institute of Business Studies, or NIBS. I was amazed how it didn’t even compare to the smallest college in Georgia.”

“We got to spend Father’s Day in Kiganjo at Deliverance Church. Everyone went on stage together and introduced themselves. It was very interesting having what we say translated into Swahili. Justin went up before us, and once we finished he invited Barry up to give a message to the people. It was incredible having Duncan translate every word Barry spoke. The story he was preaching was that of John the Baptist. John said he was here for prepare the way for Jesus. Maybe we are too. We need to make our lives smaller so that God’s becomes bigger.

“We broke for lunch at local a restaurant where we were served chicken, vegetables, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes and goat!! After that, we went to one final house visit where we were going to help prepare supper with the client. Everyone had their own responsibility and contribution to the dinner making. But none of it would be possible without the supervision and guidance of our hosts. The experience was invaluable. Their home, garden, and even their ground started to look different to us, as we became more of a family to them.

Miles helps to cook dinner with a client’s family

Not Every HIV+ Person was Promiscuous

There is this advertisement in the Kenya television that I find disconcerting. It features a woman in bed with a man who is not her husband, meaning this is what causes HIV. This advert puts me on edge. I feel like I have got fire ants in my pants! Those 60 seconds it runs feel like a very longtime. I feel that way because it is adding to the many people who are misinformed about HIV.

I am always tempted to pull my “son” George aside to put things straight and explain to him that he and his grandmother, among other thousands of people we serve at CARE for AIDS, were not in that situation.

George is now 17 years old, and he is half blind because of the anti-retroviral medicine he has been taking. When I first met George, a neglected boy from the Huruma slums in Nairobi, it pained my heart that a child born of a father and a mother would be left wandering in the slums.  It was evident no one cared.

George tells me that all his life he has always had to deal with HIV-related problems.  It does not make things easier because people know him as “Yule kijana wa ukimwi,” or “The young man with AIDS.”  And that is because he is HIV-positive and is always taking part in HIV-related activities.

“I hate going back home-to the village, because most people there identify me as the person whose parents died of AIDS, never by my name,” he tells me. George was born HIV-positive. His parents died of HIV-related complications, leaving him to be brought up partly by his grandmother before he found his way to the slums. Years after his mother died, his concerned grandmother sought to know why he was not putting on weight and why he was not developing as fast as other children his age. The doctor asked why George’s mother had not brought him to hospital herself. That is how he got to find out what caused the death of George’s parents. The poor boy was already infected.

His grandmother went back home and shared her predicament with others, thinking that she would get support. However, this only served as fodder for gossip. It was, and still is, tough for George because everyone, especially where he comes from, stares and treats him strangely. This is something that forced the poor boy to run away from his grandmother’s place in the village, landing into the slums where no one knew about his status…a 9 year old boy.

Later on, back in the village, his grandmother started to fall sick. She had the same symptoms as those of her deceased son and daughter-in-law. She was sure it was a curse until the same doctor suggested that she has a HIV test done. The positive verdict was like a death sentence. Presumably, George’s grandmother got infected with the virus while caring for his parents. I was lucky to meet her, and at 85 years, she still does not understand how she got infected with the virus. As George and l talked, we thanked God that his grandmother, who lives upcountry, does not own a television set and has therefore never seen the adverts that link HIV/AIDS with promiscuity.  She would be more aggravated than I am.

Duncan has been caring for George, as well as five other orphaned boys, for around five years now.  All are healthy and doing well in school.  Please continue to pray for George, the other boys, and everyone in Kenya who is wrongfully judged and stigmatized because of false beliefs about HIV.  We are thankful for the opportunity to teach the churches we work with that HIV doesn’t make someone promiscuous and the church is called to love people living with HIV/AIDS!