Finding fortunes in community work
As he told his story for perhaps the hundredth time, Leon* broke down again. This time in front of a packed Almere auditorium at Almere high school in Netherlands. He cursed himself. But could not hold back the tears. Narrating the tragic story of his life and encounters with HIV/AIDS meant reliving the pain and horror of the past all over again.
The teachers and students gathered for Dance 4 life concert listened in disbelief and wept with him. Most had heard of similar stories in News, from books and papers, this was the first time they were actually meeting someone with a personal experience.
“If someone had told me years ago that I would be in Europe today telling my story to the world. I would have taken it as an insult. I had lost all hope for a better future,” said Leon to his audience while fighting back tears.
Leon 22, manages a CBO working with the APHIA- plus program in the HIV/AIDS initiatives in his home area of Bangladesh, an informal settlement in Mombasa. He was in Holland courtesy of Dance 4 life, a worldwide movement that uses dance, music, youth and media icons to create awareness on HIV/AIDS among young people. Leon was selected as the African ambassador for the 2011 tour from over 40 participants owing to his history with the epidemic and his contribution to fighting it in his community.
Leon has lost half his family to AIDS. Over the years, he has seen siblings, relatives and neighbours succumb to it effects. Born in a polygamous family of four stepmothers and over 12 siblings, Alfred grew up in abject neglect and poverty. His father, now deceased, was the sole bread winner who depended on odd jobs to feed his large family. There was hardly enough to go around, a characteristic lifestyle with informal settlements.
In 2009 after high school, together with other like-minded youth in his community, he formed Alfa & Omega, a CBO that has since helped raise awareness on the epidemic in his small Bangladesh community.
He tells stories of how he has nursed several relatives and friends in their last stages of AIDS only to watch them wither and die right in front of him. In one incident, his critically sick uncle died on him on their way to his rural home in Simenya, Nyanza province. He and the owner of private vehicle who had been kind enough to carry them had to play hide and seek with the police for the rest of the 500 km to his rural home.
The most touching however, has to be the struggle to save his father, Henry. Although the father, had been aware of his positive status, he refused to seek medication because of the stigma that was then associated with people spotted going for ARV's at the Catholic hospital. See, for years he had been on the forefront of HIV prevention initiatives, so discovery of his positive status disappointed not only him but also his community. From then on he lived in denial and slowly sunk into depression.
After finishing his O levels 2008, Leon came home to find his dad in a bad state of health, sick and abandoned by his stepmothers and relatives. Attempts to get him on ART proved futile as his CD4 count was too high.Henry finally succumbed to opportunistic infections in April 2010, leaving Leon then only 20, to fend for his younger siblings. Two of his older siblings had died of AIDS earlier in the year.
Since then, Leon has depended on the little handouts he gets from projects done by the CBO and well-wishers to provide for his family. He is yet to be employed. Two of his siblings were lucky to get sponsors for their high school education. With the allowances he got from the dance 4 life tour, he opened a small scale business for his biological mother Adhiambo, who has since relocated to Mombasa from the village where she lived after leaving Alfred's father when he married a second wife. This decision she now realises, saved her from a dangerous chain of HIV infection.
Alfa & Omega now has 25 young vibrant members involved in initiatives and community outreaches addressing HIV/AIDS issues and other social ills. They performed a wonderful play teaching on need of prevention during the Coast province World Aids day 2011 celebrations in Mombasa much to the delight of the audience. A true statement of the good work they are doing to sensitize the community on HIV, directed by Leon.
It is with such a history that Leon won the hearts of the Dance- 4- life crew. The Europe tour he says was unforgettable, a highlight of his life. During the 3 months he was in Holland, he visited to schools and colleges in Amsterdam, Hague and Almere sharing his testimony, literally taking the reality of living with HIV in a Kenyan slum to them. He touched many lives. He met music icons, media personalities, visited state of the art amusement parks and even got the rare chance of dining with the Holland monarch.
Leon continues to use his brain child Alfa & Omega to work with donors to bring a difference to Bangladesh. He hopes to use his experience abroad to make changes on the ground and inspire other youth from his low income community to desist from idleness and crime and instead engage in community work, and just like him they may find fortunes in it.
