WHEN A FATHER DRAWS DAGGERS.......

Child molestation cases in Malindi-Kenya are rampant . The child protection centre receives up to 50 such cases in month .But due to victimization and compromise by the community  many cases never get to Court, instead they are solved traditionally which takes as little as a goat sacrifice to cleanse the perpetrator.

The pain and agony they endured at the time can only be told by Kadzo, the other two are too traumatized to speak about it. Sitting across me at the God our father rescue center-their new home- Kadzo now 17 tells the story of a father turning against his own flesh and blood.

As she narrates, the cycle of abuse began right after Pwagu, their father left prison in 2011. He had served 7 years at the Malindi GK prison for a series of sexual related crimes in their village of Ramada-70 Km from Malindi town.

One night as the three children slept in their little room, Kadzo was woken up by something jerking her legs apart. Before she could scream a massive hand covered her nose and mouth and after a sharp pain when through her private parts, did she realize what was happening. She only managed to get a glimpse of her father’s face when he was done. In pain and shock she cried herself to sleep.

The next day she told- but nobody believed her. Their grandparents, who lived in a nearby homestead, consoled but talked her into silence-she was not to tell anybody of the ordeal. Two weeks later it happened again, from then the abuse was regular, but this time she did not run to anyone, she decided to suffer in silence. Not long after that, Pwagu as if possessed by a demon, turned to his other three other children, molesting, 12 year old Moses, 8year old Maria and six year old Bernard in turns.

It was after Kadzo fell pregnant that the heinous crime came to light. A teacher at her school noticed her quickly growing tummy. After her pregnancy test confirmed that she was two months pregnant, Kadzo broke down and told the teacher all that had happened. Fearing for her safety, the teacher-took her to the local chief. The chief took up the matter with the child protection centre after the grandparents showed reluctance to proceed with the case.

Pwagu was eventually arrested after Medical results at the Malindi district hospital proved indeed the three children had been sexually abused by him. Matron Jane, who mans the gender desk –supported by APHIAplus at the district hospital,-took the three through trauma counseling during the trial of their father as they had to testify against him. With the help of the child protection centre and community, Pwagu got a twenty year sentence.

The children eventually put up at the God our father children’s’ home-a donor funded safe centre, because of the magnitude of rebuke and threats they received from relatives after their fathers sentencing.

“They said that I taught the younger ones to lie so that my father could go back to jail. When it was a matter we could have settled at home” Said a tearful Kadzo “they told us never to go back there again”

Today, the children are happy at their new found home. Kadzo is now a mother, Bernad is fine but Janet still gets anxiety attacks whenever she gets into compromising situations. Nelly, Their counselor at the facility says the children are adjusting well to their new home. They no longer have nightmares, stress or isolate themselves as when they first came. Kadzo now in class eight, she hopes to become a doctor a one day.

NOTE:

NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE IDENTITIES

A DIFFRENT KIND OF DOCTOR

“Once I was beaten and left for dead by a client and three of his accomplices. He lured me to his house in pretense of wanting services, on arrival we found other people waiting. They locked the door beat me senseless, stripped me naked then threw me into the street in broad daylight. I was totally humiliated”.

This is just one of the many cases of brutality that ‘Barry’ experienced for 18 years while  working as a sex worker in Mombasa. The 34 year old was lured into sex trade as a teenager by friends who were earning big from it. At first it was good business but as the years progresses so did the challenges. Discrimination got worse, constant STD infections-with no available treatment were common and emotional trauma when he lost many of his peers to HIV.

His life however took a dramatic turn in 2000 when he was invited by a friend to a peer session for female sex workers. From the session he got to know of the -Reducing the Risk to HIV/STI for Female Sex Workers and Men who have sex with men program, implemented by a local NGO. He started accessing treatment, lubricants and counseling services from their Ganjoni HTC drop in center in Mombasa town. He also acquired capital to start small scale businesses and stopped relying entirely on sex work.

13 years down the line, Barry is a peer educator and a HTC counselor at the center currently being supported by a health care program. He shares the knowledge and skills he acquired over the years as part of the program to reach out to other male sex workers- many whom he says are suffering. His presence at the centre encourages them Male sex workers to come by for services as they can talk to one of their own.

“Sex trade is getting more and more dangerous. The clients are becoming more aggressive and turn violent at the slightest provocation, putting the sex workers at great risk of physical violence not to mention HIV infection” Said Barry.

Barry is now married with two children and works hard to fend for them. He aspires to go medical school so that he can avail services to MSMs and people other different sexual orientations without discrimination.

Finding lake Jipe

Findiing lake jipe

 The year is already looking up. Most recently, i had the pleasure of discovering the utmost beauty of lake Jipe.

Situated 10 KM from Taveta town and inside the Tsavo West national park, Lake Jipe can only be described as a little paradise amidst a wilderness.It offers the perfect escape for nature lovers who would want a break away from civilization.

I should warn you though , the road leading to the lake is  ragged to say the least- better to have a four wheel drive. After a 9 km ruff ride ,it comes to an end, we were inclined to  asked for directions from the local fisher-folk communities to get to the lake. 

But our destination was worth the wait.The massive lake spreads out to the hills on the Kenyan-Tanzanian border.The environment is enriching with various form of wildlife including hippos and alligators that rule its waters and  gazelles,zebras and buffaloes that come by during the day for a drink. Occasionally  the guide tells us,lions and Elephants come by too.

There are speed boats at hand if one wishes to explore the hills,but we chickened out-doesn't seem  safe to be gliding on waters full of alligators and hippos.

The KWS lodge can only accommodate four  individuals at a go and you have to come with your own food-to make use of the fully furnished  kitchen.

Outside-night camping is however discouraged due to the presence of Hippos in its waters.

The green strip of grass stretching out to the lake from the lodge offers a perfect picnic area,where families can set up tables and chairs or sit on blankets and enjoy sites and sounds from the Lake.

Find time and visit !

From Jeers to Cheers-Former jailbird now a respected community member.

Teenage years usually come with lot of temptations,indecision and peer pressure.Many have made it through unscathed while others  drowned in its sea of madness trying to "discover themselves" in the race to adulthood.Here find the story of a young woman who turned her  life upside down but is now in the process of rebuilding it. 

When results of her HIV test turned out to be negative,Asha*couldn’t believe it. For a moment, she was paralyzed with shock and confusion, much to the amazement of the health worker attending to her.
Thinking her client had not properly understood the results, the health worker quickly took her through post-test counseling. But in the end they had to redo the test, just to assure Asha that she really was negative. This moment changed her life forever.

Looking back now three years after the incident, Asha gonge is still trying to fathom how she escaped the deadly virus. The 23 year old resident of Bangladesh, the biggest informal settlement in Mombasa, confesses to had lived a dangerous life. Then, she abused drugs during the day and prostituted at night. Children were terrified of her gang, peers feared and parents despised them. Now a respected peer educator in her home area, Asha tells stories of how she couldn’t pass by the market during the day for fear of reproach from other women who accused her for sneaking around with their husbands. Then, she says she would sleep with any man who offered her cash, with or without protection, openly exposing herself to HIV/STI infection.

"At first I resisted their advances, but the men kept asking for sex. I had needs with no one to provide for me since both my parents were dead. So I thought, instead of giving it out for free, why not make money out of it?" Said Asha.

But Asha was not always a prostitute.

Ten years back in 2002, then at 13 years of age, she  lost her mother to Aids. While trying to come to terms with her mother’s demise, she joined a gang of robbers and muggers. She would run away from school to smoke bhang and lazy around with them, a habit that did not go well with her dad.

 In March 2004, after months of trying to get her to leave the gang without success, her strict father personally frog matched her to Shimo la Tewa police station. The next day she was sentenced to an 8 month prison term at Shimo la Tewa correctional center for loitering and disobedience to her parents.

Prison life was hard at first, but with time she adjusted to the lifestyle of limited freedom, half cooked food and hard labor.

 She met inmates who committed far much worse crimes than hers. Most were murderers, others robbers and con-artists, it was a gathering of worst of worst characters of the society. Rubbing shoulders with such people spelled disaster for Asha; she came out worse than she had gone in.

At the end of her term, she went back home and faithfully cleared her primary education in 2005.

 Unfortunately she couldn’t further her education because her then ailing father, couldn't afford the fees. Asha then opted to work as a house help in Mtwapa to support her two younger siblings. It was while working at this sex tourism haven, that she learnt how to make money from sex. Later on when her employment was terminated, she went back home and continued with her trade-this time not as a street walker but a community sex worker targeting men from her neighborhood, who were mostly married.

After her father’s death in 2008, Asha  went from bad to worse. She went back to her old gang, a feared lot in the community. They would rough up anyone who dared oppose them, including members of a local youth CBO called Alfa and Omega which she later joined. They would rudely disrupt their peer education sessions and corner their members accusing them of spreading lies.

Alfa and Omega is a CBO based in Mombasa using magnet theatre to mobilize communities into positive behavior change in relation to HIV, Malaria, TB. Although outwardly she was against the group , deep down Asha was drawn to their initiatives especially the skits. (Short plays conveying a specific message)

"When she asked to join the group, we didn’t want her. We thought it was one of her gang's plot to mock us". Remarked Alfa and Omega chairman  Hassan. "But being the bully she was, one day she demanded to play the role of a mother during a skit performance at the market. She was so good that later on we took her in as a temporary”.

Unfortunately being in the group did not automatically change Asha. Unknown to other members, she still smoked bhang and prostituted -habits she attributes to pressure from her former peers. 

While mobilizing for Counseling and testing outreach in 2009, Asha decided to go for testing. Following the life she had lived, she as well as everybody else who knew her assumed she was HIV +, she went for the test just to confirm her fears.

However the outcome was different, something she did not expect-she was HIV negative. Three months later, her negative status was formally confirmed at the Catholic diocese Voluntary Counseling and Testing centre. From then on her life took a different turn.

Now a fully fledged member, Asha says the trainings, outreaches and trainings she has gone through while in the group have helped mold her personality. She is an influential member of her community, a symbol of behavior change. She uses her experience to persuade other youth to take beneficial paths in life. Together with the group, they have seen a decrease in spread of HIV, alcoholism, robbery, rape and domestic violence, vices that were once common place in the informal settlement.

 Most of her former gang members are in jail, others died as a result of either AIDS, police shoot outs or mob justice.

"Now whenever I pass by the market, instead of jeers I get cheers. Am happy for the progress i have made" Said Asha now widely known as mama mtaa in Bangladesh. 

RESCUING RAMA

Handicapped children in Kenya often face a lot of challenges.Their parents as well.Without adequate resources ,stigma and  zero help from the government to cater for their children's special needs,many end up making very drastic decisions.This is one of their stories..............

Had Awino not intervened, Rama would probably still be hidden, locked away in their poorly lit home, playing with little metal tins  and bottle tops,  completely secluded from the outside world.

 Rama 12, is a mentally and physically challenged child residing in Moroto, an informal settlement in Mombasa. As Community health worker Awino narrates, for 7 years his mother Kadzo hid him, perhaps fearing shame and social stigma handicapped children and their parents are subjected to.

 He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy nine months after birth, a condition his therapist told us,he developed due to lack of ante-natal care, the prolonged labor and other complications his mother developed at the hands of an unskilled birth attendant.

  It was during one of her routine household visits that Awino met Rama after a tip-off from neighbors’ that there was a disabled child at the home. Despite making regular visits to the home, Awino had not been aware of Rama's existence; the mother hid him from her too.

“He was like a wild animal terrified of strangers and bright light. He would often scream and hide behind curtains whenever he saw me” explained Awino.

From then on, Awino made regular visits to the home trying to persuade the mother to let him out of the house. With knowledge acquired from a Medicare training for community health workers sponsored by a local NGO, she started providing the family with psycho-social care and ointments to care for bruises he gets from crawling around earthen floors. She also encouraged Kadzo to enroll him into a special school.

Eventually Kadzo warmed up to the idea and took him to Tom Mboya special school. In 2012 she transferred him to an even better institution, Portreitz School for the mentally handicapped where he now boards full-time and only comes home during holidays. There, he gets physiotherapy to coordinate his movement and to straighten limbs and fingers which deformed during the of neglect.

His caregivers are however optimistic that he will soon be able to write as he can now hold a pen, brush his teeth and go to the toilet by himself! His social skills have also greatly improved as he now plays and interacts freely with other pupils and teachers. His physiotherapist says his progress is incredible for a child who had been neglected.

“Rama is a quick learner. All he needs is comprehensive therapy and in a few years he will be able to not only walk but also do a lot of things by himself. He has moved from the wheelchair and is now training on the walking frame” He said

Raising his fees of 2500/= per term and catering for his other expenses however remains an everyday struggle for the mother who runs a fish mongering business. The father, despite being present, alive and well, does nothing to support his family.

 However Kadzo rejoices at the progress her child has made. “I had lost hope in Rama ever learning anything. Seeing how much he has   progressed, him laughing and playing with others makes me happy. I regret not having taken him to school early; he would have been very far by now.But am thankful that he finally has hope of growing up like any other child.”She said fighting back tears.

NOTE:NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT IDENTITIES 

finding fortunes in community work

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.

 

 

 

 

NOTE: Names and photos withheld to protect the identities of the subjects

changing lives

In my line of work,i get to interact with many youths.Most who are under-privileged but whose lives our behaviour change programs has impacted positively.They have risen from drug addiction,prostitution,crime to inspirational individuals.They have chosen to become better people for themselves,their communities and their country.Over the next few weeks, I will be publishing  stories on this blog. Watch this space!