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Our Programs : Living Positive |
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The HIV epidemic is currently the leading of death in Africa. It has put families, communities and the government under great pressure to provide care and treatment to the infected resulting in enormous sacrifice of material and financial resources by both families and communities. Most of the persons living with HIV/AIDS receive care from the relatives mostly children of the patients at their own homes. Therefore the program is to improve and support this existing care through voluntary community health workers. The workers provide friendship and moral support and teach home-nursing skills to patients, relatives and friends. Maisha International volunteers educate and promote awareness of HIV/AIDS as well as crosscutting issues aimed to reduce incidences of infection in the society. The community health workers do counseling and referral to suspected cases/conditions needing doctor's attention. Where necessary and possible, workers provide food during their visit either a cooked meal or raw food to be cooked by the family members. Due to poverty syndrome that has escalated the area, people often avoid attending health facilities because they don't have something to pay from their own pockets and because of this reason, most of the people encounter premature death as a result of depression and inability to take care of themselves. Maisha International targets youth and women economic empowerment to engage them in money generating activities to support themselves. The trained volunteers assist very sick parents prepare memory books for their children. It is like a will to the child with the photos for both parents. The last word of Mum and Dad is a treasure to the child. It always reminds us that we all as human beings have responsibilities for one another.
~ HIV/AIDS in Kenya HIV/AIDS Education has been our main area of focus since 2006. Over 50,000 Kenyans have been sensitized about the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS. In the past one year the number of Maisha international volunteers working in Kenya has grown dramatically and as a result we now reach over 100,000 rural Kenyans each year. In June 2008, an intensive HIV/AIDS peer training program, IMPACT, was launched. In the first 2 months of this "training of trainers" program, over 250 Kenyans were trained to teach about HIV/AIDS and serve as resources for their peers. The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Kenya Even though there is a good level of knowledge about HIV in the urban areas of the country, on average, young adults do not have enough information to protect themselves properly. 34% of young women and 47% of young men (aged 15-24) correctly identified effective methods of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, according to UNAIDS/WHO. The level of knowledge in rural areas is especially poor. Working in the rural village sectors of Nyanza Province since 2006, members of Maisha International have surveyed and witnessed a tragic situation: the ravaging effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in these remote locations. Battling HIV/AIDS through Education In June 2008, a program for Peer Education called IMPACT was developed and implemented by the Maisha team in Kenya. The goal of IMPACT is to train high school, college students and/or community groups such that they can be a resource for others within their schools and/or communities. It is the hope that the information supplied within the IMPACT flyers will be a reference that can be used in answering questions posed by their peers and that, following training, they will be comfortable giving a presentation about HIV/AIDS to a group. In a high school environment, students with questions and concerns relating to sex and STIs are not likely to ask teachers and guidance counselors for information. Having a peer to supply facts and guidance will increase the comfort level and facilitate the acquisition of knowledge by those who most need it. Community-based training sessions also provide trained, knowledgeable individuals within rural areas. The participants attend six training sessions (2-2.5 hours each) covering a range of topics including information about HIV/AIDS and the Immune System, Mother to Child Transmission, Sexual Decision making (including a demonstration of proper condom use), Guidelines for Living Positively with HIV/AIDS, Details of Cultural Practices and Social Structures which affect the spread, and tips for Counseling of HIV-infected and affected individuals. Videos, group discussions, games, worksheets, and role-plays have all been incorporated into the IMPACT program to facilitate active learning. Participants are given the opportunity to practice giving a presentation about HIV/AIDS. The final session involves the formulation of an Action Plan. The participants decide what to do with the knowledge they have gained from the program and how it can best benefit their communities and/or schools. With some input from Maisha International, they will come up with ideas as to distribution of this knowledge and are offered our advice and/or help for any programs they wish to begin. Participants are continuously encouraged to ask questions and make suggestions which can enhance the IMPACT program. As of November 2008, over 25 students and adults have undergone IMPACT training. Maisha International Requirement We have realized, through our community involvement that a high level of ignorance still exists about the origin, transmission, and prevention of HIV/AIDS in many communities in Nyanza Province of Kenya . This is often noticed during the question and answer sessions of presentations done by volunteers. Based on past questions, we have discovered that some Kenyans in the Kisumu, Siaya, and south Nyanza Districts believe that mosquitoes can spread HIV and that condoms have tiny holes through which the virus can pass. Since they believe these myths to be true, the population does not practice proper, consistent use of condoms, which is essential in arresting the rapid spread of the virus. Another common and dangerous belief is that people infected the HIV can rid themselves of the virus by passing the virus on to as many people as possible through repeated unprotected intercourse. Misconceptions such as these must be dispelled and replaced with facts about the virus. The provision of education, not only to increase knowledge but also to break the silence and stigma surrounding this disease, is essential to stop the continued devastation of society. In the villages of Nyanza Kenya, HIV/AIDs have robbed hundreds of thousands of children of their parents. Why HIV/AIDs Education? Education needs to be an ongoing process, because each generation of young people need to be informed about how they can protect themselves from HIV as they grow up. Older generations, who have already hopefully received some AIDS education, may need the message reinforced, so that they continue to take precautions against HIV infection, and are able to inform younger people of the dangers. There are three main reasons for AIDS education: This can be seen as consisting of two processes: firstly, giving people information about HIV and AIDS, such as how they are transmitted and how people can protect themselves from infection. Secondly, people must be taught how to put this information to use and act on it practically - how to get and use condoms, how to suggest and practice safer sex, how to prevent infection in a medical environment or when injecting drugs. 2. To improve quality of life for HIV positive people Too often, AIDS education is seen as being something which should be targeted only at people who are not infected with HIV in order to prevent them from becoming infected. When AIDS education with HIV positive people is considered at all it is frequently seen only in terms of preventing new infections by teaching HIV+ people about the importance of not passing on the virus. An important and commonly-neglected aspect of Aids education and HIV positive people is enabling and empowering them to improve their quality of life. HIV positive people have varying educational needs, but among them are the need to be able to access medical services and drug provision and the need to be able to find appropriate emotional and practical support and help. 3. To reduce stigma and discrimination In Kenya there is a great deal of fear and stigmatization of people who are HIV positive. This fear is too often accompanied by ignorance, resentment and ultimately, anger. Sometimes the results of prejudice and fear can be extreme, with HIV positive people being rejected, and many families being forced to leave their homes when neighbors discover a family-member's positive status. Discrimination against positive people can help the AIDS epidemic to spread, because if people are fearful of being tested for HIV, then they are more likely to pass the infection to someone else without knowing. Who Needs to be Educated about AIDS? In 1987 in the UK, a leaflet about AIDS was delivered to every household, and the government also launched a major advertising campaign with the slogan "AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance" This is an example of non-targeted education, or rather, education with a very broad target, intended to blanket the whole population. To plan an effective AIDS education strategy with smaller sections of the population, it helps to know the characteristics of the group who are to be educated. It is possible to identify three distinct groups of people who require targeted education: ~ People who have not yet been educated and may be at risk of becoming infected. This usually means young people, who need to know the risks involved in unsafe sex and drug use before they are old enough to find out for themselves. ~ People who have already been educated for whom the education was not effective. If AIDS education were completely effective, there wouldn't be nearly so many new infections. These infections do not only occur amongst young people - many people who have already experienced AIDS education continue to become infected with HIV. ~ People who are already infected. Initially, this must involve an element of counseling and support, and must teach them how about living well with HIV, the tests they may need to have, and the medications they may need to take. They must also learn about HIV transmission and safer sex, for two reasons - they need to know how to live positively without passing the virus on to anyone else, and they need to know how to avoid coming into contact with a strain of the virus that differs from the one they are already have. On top of this, everyone needs to learn how and why not to discriminate against positive people. People who are not HIV positive must learn about how the virus is transmitted in order that they are able to protect themselves from infection. At the same time, they must also learn how the virus is not transmitted. People need to know that they cannot become infected from things such as sharing food, towels or toilets. This will help to reduce discrimination against positive people by reducing ignorance and fear of HIV. Orphans and Widows at Maisha Orphanage speak:
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Maisha International Orphanage
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