Testimonials

Joe Brennam - Volunteer

While in Kenya, we had the opportunity to visit the isolated mud huts of some women suffering from HIV as well as two HIV support groups. These were people representing all strata of society struggling against community rejection while banning together to confront the virus’ impact on their lives, and those of their families. Up to forty gather weekly to offer mutual support and assistance. There are others who, individually, make similar efforts to assist those with the illness. I would like to share a few brief thoughts about all those whom we met, who are assisting those afflicted by HIV.

HIV kills. It kills the body, it kills the mind, it kills the spirit. It destroys communities, neighborhoods, families, relationships. In Western Kenya fifteen percent of the population know that they already have the virus. In some schools we visited up to fifty percent of the students have been left orphans by HIV. It puts fear in the hearts of both the victims, and their children. There is fear of social isolation, of an inability to care for the young, and a fear of who will care for their children when they are no longer here. But there are those who challenge these fears. I met some of them. There was Dicken, and Tom, and Sarah, the grandmother of a famous politician, and there were the those courageous self help groups that were formed to offer mutual support.

For Dicken, a single man, there were his pre-school children, some two hundred and fifty of them, many orphaned by HIV. They learn their ABC’s by writing them on “improvised blackboards”, in the dirt. Dicken has also taken ten year old Pheoby into his home along with two other children who have HIV. Pheoby’s parents died of HIV when she was just one and half years old. Her seventy year old grandmother could no longer care for her and so she has found a loving home with Dicken.

Then there is Tom, his three brothers and his in-laws also perished from HIV, that left twenty-three small children orphaned. He keeps eight of these children in his home, the rest are housed in neighbors’ homes and financially supported by Tom.

Sarah has supported more than one hundred orphans in her home and throughout her community. She did so years before her grandson became elected to high political office. Now in her eighties, she continues to support orphans, and opens her home to visitors who share her dreams.

Then there are the many voices of those who have been afflicted by HIV. Representing all segments of Kenyan society, they have formed groups to offer support and understanding to each other, and to offer a witness to the community that HIV must be better understood and prevented. They have confronted HIV, kept active in the community, designed their own projects, and challenged the community’s prejudices. Beyond meeting together weekly, some have started their own pre-school, cultivated their own crops, developed their own hand crafts, but more importantly they have been there for each other.

HIV does kill, it can fill the soul with fear, it does bring suffering to communities, but there are those who refuse to let it destroy their spirit. If we seek examples of faith, hope, and love in this world, we have only to look to Dicken, to Tom, to Sarah Obama, and to those in Western Kenya who have gathered to share their fears, their dreams, and to confront HIV.

Joe Brennam

  Back to testimonials