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World AIDS Day: Fighting HIV/AIDS in Kenya


December 1, 2010
By Kathleen Sands Adams

A youth advocacy group uses theater to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among refugees living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp, in Kenya's remote Turkana district.

Photo: Matija Kovac/The IRC

Fighting HIV/AIDS in Kenya

  • <p>Since 2005, the International Rescue Committee has been working with refugees and local communities in the remote Turkana region of northern Kenya to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, provide basic clinical care and fight stigma. This IRC outreach worker is giving out basic information about HIV/AIDS to residents of the town of Lokichoggio, near the Sudanese border. Most people living in the region, however, are nomadic herders -- so we rely on mobile teams who travel in off-road vehicles to reach communities with vital counseling and testing services.</p>
  • <p>This is the HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing center at the IRC-supported Kakuma Mission Hospital in northwestern Turkana. As of August 2010, the IRC had tested more than 110,000 people for the AIDS virus in Turkana and provided access to free antiretroviral therapy for over 1,500 patients.</p>
  • <p>An IRC counselor demonstrates condom use during a voluntary counseling and testing session for couples. In all, our HIV/AIDS care and prevention efforts have reached more than a quarter million people -- half the population of Turkana.</p>
  • <p>This Somali Bantu mother-to-be is participating in an HIV/AIDS counseling and testing session at the Kakuma Refugee Camp as part of the IRC&#39;s prenatal care program. One of the biggest challenges of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS -- the risk of which can be significantly reduced with early intervention -- is identifying HIV-positive pregnant women.</p>
  • <p>A youth advocacy group at the Kakuma Refugee Camp uses theater to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among the refugees from 12 African countries who live here.&nbsp; Raising awareness is the core of the IRC&#39;s strategy to prevent the disease&#39;s spread and manage its negative social impacts &ndash; especially stigma.&nbsp; Since many young people in Turkana are out of school but unemployed, the IRC recruits them to take part in campaigns reaching out to their peers.</p>
  • <p>&quot;Fabulous,&quot; a group of young women and girls who provide HIV/AIDS awareness outreach, talk to villagers in Lokichoggio.&nbsp; Girls and young women are particularly at risk of becoming infected with HIV/AIDS in Kenya -- in fact, those aged 15 to 19 are three times more likely to be infected than young men in the same age group. The IRC has been engaging members of at-risk groups, training them to promote behavioral changes that can help prevent the spread of disease.</p>
  • <p>Joseph Emejen (left) and Joseph Epetet, community advocates from Lokichoggio who are both HIV-positive.&nbsp; The two men are part of an IRC program that empowers people living with HIV/AIDS to educate their neighbors about the disease and to play an important role in planning local HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs. &quot;Stigma in the communities is still very high,&quot; Josepeh Emejen says. Joseph Epetet agrees. He says it is often very hard to make people understand that it is possible to be HIV-positive and enjoy a long, fulfilling life, but that it requires a healthy lifestyle, responsible behavior, and strict, life-long anti-retroviral therapy.</p>
  • <p>A young mother from Lodwar is congratulated by an IRC staff member as she graduates from the IRC&#39;s &quot;Families First!&quot; HIV/AIDS prevention program. The program stresses the importance of talking with children and young adolescents about sexuality, and offers caregivers advice on how best to approach sensitive subjects. &quot;According to the Turkana tradition, these things are not discussed openly,&quot; says one father who graduated from the program.&nbsp; &quot;Children usually get embarrassed and surprised when their parents try to talk to them about sexuality or diseases like HIV,&quot; he says. &quot;Since I&#39;ve started coming here, I&#39;m able to talk to them.&quot;</p>
  • <p>The IRC is also taking HIV/AIDS prevention messages to the classroom. These primary school teachers in Turkana are receiving life skills training from the IRC which includes a session on HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and treatment.</p>
  • <p>Eregae, a presenter at Radio Sayare, Lodwar, hosts an HIV/AIDS awareness program and takes listeners&#39; questions. In remote areas such as Turkana, where access to TV, print media and the Internet is limited, radio is an important source of information. The IRC pioneered the use of radio by a nonprofit in Turkana to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS.</p>
  • <p>A member of the medical staff at the IRC-supported AIC Health Center in Lokichoggio gives tuberculosis medication to a young Turkana girl. Tuberculosis is one of the main killers of AIDS patients.</p>
  • <p>Samual Ikeny and Bethwel Lochor are administrators at the AIC Health Center. Working together with partners -- a cornerstone of the IRC&#39;s approach -- has helped us build the capacity of local organizations and put into place a lasting HIV/AIDS response that saves lives. (Updated December 2010)</p>
Launch Slideshow

Almost three decades after the first cases of AIDS were recorded, nearly 30 million people have died of HIV-related causes.  In Kenya, the IRC has been helping refugees and local communities protect themselves from this modern plague — and the stigma associated with it.

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All Kenya Slideshows >

Today is World AIDS Day.  International Rescue Committee programs all over the world are marking the day with awareness-raising activities about preventing the spread of HIV and supporting people living with the disease.

Here are just a few facts about AIDS:

  • Almost three decades after the first cases of AIDS were recorded, nearly 30 million people have died of HIV-related causes.

 

  • A total of 33 million people now live with HIV/AIDS. Two million of them are under the age of 15.

 

  • More than two-thirds of all people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa — including 90 percent of the world’s HIV-positive children.


In Kenya, where the IRC assists refugees and local communities, HIV/AIDS has always been viewed as a scourge of cities -- so it hasn't been acknowledged as a problem in rural areas such as Turkana, a remote, northwestern district bordering Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia.

However, Turkana has reported some of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the country in the past decade.  Because most people living in Turkana are nomadic herders who live in isolated areas and move frequently, reaching them with HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and clinical care  presents a real challenge.

IRC volunteer Matija Kovac documented the IRC's work fighting HIV/AIDS in Turkana for a new report -- he shared these photos.

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