On any given day, Halima has her work cut out for her. As a community health volunteer in a rural area outside of Mombasa, she makes one or two home visits per day, checking in on families participating in ChildFund’s program to help children and families affected by HIV and AIDS in Kenya’s Coast and Nairobi provinces. Halima has 50 children on her list.
Launched in 2011 and run by ChildFund Kenya and several other partner organisations, the USAID-funded program takes a comprehensive approach to ensuring that these children and their caregivers have a safety net so they can build a more hopeful future.
Today, Halima’s first visit is with Nadzua, 35, who is mother to 11 children, after marrying into a family who had lost their mother to HIV. She greets Halima warmly in her front yard, a sleepy toddler balanced on her hip. Her two-year-old son, Mbega, is Nadzua’s only child home this morning – the others are at school, and her husband is in town.
The women sit together outside to chat. Before moving on to today’s subject – how Nadzua can gain skills to improve her family’s income – there is a lot to talk about; from the children’s health and immunisations and school to nutrition and hygiene and how Nadzua is doing in the literacy classes Halima encouraged her to take.
For Nadzua, it is hard with 11 children to care for, but life has improved since Halima’s visits began. “I have gained a lot from Halima,” Nadzua says. “I am more educated, more informed on how to take care of my children and my household.”
Two years ago, Sebastian was a dangerously ill 12-year-old boy.
At just 16 kilograms, the average weight for a healthy three-year-old, he was so weak he could barely lift his head. His mother had died from AIDS and Sebastian had been born with HIV.
Sebastian had never been treated for the disease and when he was finally reunited with his grandmother, she barely recognised him.
Today, at 14, Sebastian has made miraculous improvements. He has gained weight and controls his disease with medication. He lives with his grandparents, and they attend counselling and support groups.
He was even able to attend a special camp with other HIV-positive orphaned children, which he says helped him to realise that he is not alone.
According to a recent ONE report, the world could be approaching a tipping point in the fight against AIDS. As more HIV-positive people receive access to antiretroviral medications, 2015 will mark the first year since the disease reached epidemic status that the number of people receiving treatment will exceed the number of new infections.
Yet, AIDS remains one of the world`s largest public health problems and a number of significant obstacles remain in achieving the ‘beginning of the end of AIDS`.
ChildFund works in many countries in which AIDS is prevalent, including Kenya. Despite the worldwide gains outlined in the ONE report, millions of children’s lives are impacted by AIDS every year. In fact, according to UNICEF, 1.1 million Kenyan children were orphaned due to AIDS in 2011 alone.
In Kenya and other countries, ChildFund is committed to helping orphans and children affected by AIDS. Thanks to a matching grant of $3.5 million provided by the United States Agency for International Development, ChildFund was able to help improve the lives of children like Sebastian, who made an amazing recovery from the brink of death after receiving access to antiretroviral medications.
Although his family still struggles to make enough money to meet their basic needs, Sebastian is healthy and happy and lives an active life. More importantly, he now has hope for the future.
