| Kunya Village, Kenya West Africa
Circles of Hope
Sponsored by Mama na Dada
Johann Gottried Herder, a 19th Century German theologian
and writer, says that "the more a group is threatened,
the more it will turn in upon itself and the closer the ties
between its members. To avert dispersion, they do everything
to strengthen their tribal roots".
 What
Herder said two centuries ago holds true to the Luo community
today. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has threatened the social fabric
that holds the community together. I am from the Luo community,
and for the past six or so years, I have watched members of
my family and community succumb to HIV/AIDS, and even though
Mama na Dada was formed specifically to help girls and women
get education and training to enable them to attain financial
and mental independence, I find myself spending more and more
time working with the community, but especially girls and
women, on HIV/AIDS education on prevention, care and support
as well as life skills training. This past year I have been
involved in bringing the community together so that the older
generation can discuss sexual and reproductive health issues
openly with the youth.
Nyanza Province, where Mama na Dada is based, and where the
Luo community live, has HIV infection rate of 32% against
a national rate of 10.5%. The young generation, commonly referred
to as "leaders of tomorrow", is being wiped out,
with girls between the ages of 15 – 24 being most affected.
For girls and women in Kunya Matara Village, the home of Mama
na Dada, the reasons for this state of affairs are varied.
Suffice to say that the burden of giving care to the sick
and nurturing and feeding the family falls squarely on girls
and women. Apart from HIV/AIDS, malaria is one of the greatest
killers, especially in areas along the Lake, where we are
based, and many children die before their fifth birthdays
from malaria.
 As
a recognition for their efforts in bringing peace, harmony
and warmth into the families and the community, Mama na Dada
organized a day's heart to heart sharing and training
for women from Kunya Village on the International Women's
Day. Sixty seven women attended. I explained to them the significance
of the day, giving an example of one Pamela Abwao from the
community, who during the negotiation for Kenya's independence
in Lancaster, United Kingdom in 1962, insisted that women's
issues must be considered. I went on to talk about the Gather
the Women Conference and my personal experience of the conference.
I translated to them the GTW Vision Statement and then we
opened with a song in our language which says "My sister
don't sleep, the fight is still on". We then divided
the group into 5 circles.
The whole morning was taken by women sharing their experiences
and frustrations in caring for the sick members of their families,
and the impact HIV/AIDS has had on them individually and as
a community. There were many issues that came out of these
sharings, and which have formed the basis of an application
Mama na Dada has made to the government for funding to hold
a retreat for women, especially community health workers.
In the afternoon, we had a training conducted by an international
non-governmental organization, Population Services International,
on how to protect our families from malaria by using treated
mosquito nets.
 This
is one of the largest women gatherings we have had in the
community, of course apart from funeral gatherings, and the
women collectively resolved that they would hold more to give
each other support. They further resolved that next year they
would have two days' celebrations for the International
Women's Day to give them more time to interact with
each other.
I must say that this is one of the most satisfying gatherings
I have been a part of in our community, and I intend to continue
facilitating these Circles of Hope in the community.
We had another gathering of younger women who are in Mama
na Dada's Girls' Support Group in Nairobi. This
group of 12 young women was facilitated by Angela, one of
our counselors. These young women's concern was how
they can bring peace and friendship between themselves and
their mothers. In the previous support group meetings, it
has come out that many young girls are having strained relationships
with their mothers. The girls decided that they would make
an effort to bring peace and they would start by doing something
special for their mothers on mothers' day.
Joyce Oneko
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