Reasons for hope: the example of Anne Owiti
Faced with the enormity of the HIV/AIDS problem, the response of many people is often despair and hopelessness. If one reads the stories of those who have been diagnosed with the virus, the first response of many of them is thoughts of suicide. What turns at least some of them away from their despair is meeting someone else who has had the same experience and has been able to overcome their thoughts of death because they found something worth living for in the time still at their disposal. This something worth living for is often being able to help others who are in the same or a worse situation than themselves. In the same way, those who have felt the call to become a friend to the many afflicted with the disease, may also get a feeling of hopelessness in the face of the enormity of the task. What keeps them going is seeing people who have been in the pit of despair and who again find reasons for living and living more meaningfully than before. Such a person is Anne Owiti, who is with the Kibera Community Self Help Programme and directs their HIV/AIDS Services and AIDS Orphan Care. Wajibu asked Anne Owiti why she is doing the work she does and what keeps her going. Anne explains that she sees the work she is doing as a call from God. Originally a nurse, trained as a Primary Health Care manager, Mrs. Owiti felt the need to take a three-year training course in theology and community evangelism. She took this course in Nairobi with the Campus Crusade for Christ. After that she won a scholarship to study theology in Israel. Anne also has taken a course in management and knows a lot about income-generating projects. Her varied background serves her very well in the work she does presently but what energizes her is her deep love for the poor. As she sees it, the poor are marginalised in many ways. They have little education, therefore have difficulty getting jobs, getting credit and running a business. In addition, they are discriminated against: in health services and in the provision of infrastructure by the Government. Mrs. Owiti says: "If poor people in Kibera have a medical emergency, they can die before getting help because of the inaccessibility of the roads." They are exploited by landlords and the high cost of food is a cause of malnutrition. Their basic needs for shelter, food, education and medical services are not being met. Anne also blames some church people who neglect the poor and discriminate against them. She says she feels like crying when she sees their dignity not being respected. Yet, says Anne, they are people like you and me and it is important that we should learn to listen to them. The poor should be empowered. Mrs. Owiti sees a strong connection between the poverty of the majority of people in Kibera and the high rate of HIV infection among them. She gets angry with people who say that commercial sex workers should look for different employment. "Where will they find employment when even people with university degrees cannot find a job?" Says she: "When you tell such people about the danger of dying of AIDS, they will retort: 'I may die next year, but let me and my children at least sleep with a full stomach tonight.' " Poverty is not the only reason, however, for the high prevalence of the dreaded AIDS disease. Mrs. Owiti sees many examples of the powerlessness of women to overcome traditions which marginalise them and prevent them from caring for their bodies. Women are told to serve their husbands sexually even when they know that these husbands sleep around and may infect them. When a wife is barren, the family will choose another woman for the husband, again increasing the danger of the spread of the disease. Husbands may take another wife even when there is no valid reason for it and his income is not enough to take care of two families. Men may also go to prostitutes simply for a change in sexual experience. In spite of what she daily sees around her, Mrs. Owiti has reasons for hope. For the last three years she has been working with a group of women who are in the sex trade, patiently teaching them, empowering them, teaching them skills, helping them to gain some self-respect. After two years, Anne began to see some change in them: the younger women are now demanding that men use condoms. Some of the older women, having learned a skill, decided to go back to the countryside and start a small business. They are thankful for the community support they have received and will tell Anne: "I see a great change in myself." Mrs. Owiti stresses the very great importance of information to empower the poor and to create awareness about HIV/AIDS. "Does not everyone know about Coca-Cola?" she asks. "Even my three-year old son does. But have they stopped advertising?" In the same way, we must keep on with creating awareness, bombarding the public with messages. For one thing, people keep migrating to cities. They may have come from an area where the prevalence of HIV infection was not high, say North-Eastern province. Such people need to be informed. Asked about the age at which children should be made aware, Anne talks about children as young as seven who play sex with their age-mates and ten-year olds engaging in commercial sex "because these are the examples they see around them." Mrs. Owiti is not happy about the care given in hospitals to people who are dying of AIDS. In fact, she feels strongly that people should be allowed to be cared for and to die at home in the presence of their families. This would allow people to die in dignity and surrounded with the love of their families. Of course this would mean a change in policy since much more training would need to be provided for care givers but it would be better for everyone concerned. Do we not now see cases where AIDS patients are kept in hospital, even when there is nothing that can be done for them there, simply because their families have been unable to pay the hospital bill? Talking finally about people like herself who are counselling HIV-infected people or living with AIDS, Mrs. Owiti sees the need, not only of many more counsellors but also of greater support for the ones already trained. The needs are great and the resources few; naturally, even counsellors can get discouraged. The final impression Mrs. Owiti leaves one with, however, is that it will take quite a bit to discourage her. She is an inspiring example and an antidote against hopelessness in our fight against the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
 A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCERN Published Quarterly by DR. GERALD J. WANJOHI Likoni Lane - P .O. Box 32440 - Nairobi - Kenya Telephone: 720400 The Online publishing of WAJIBU is by Koinonia Media Centre. GO TO WAJIBU HOMEPAGE |