During a soap making workshop for the Muungano business run by the KayafungoMungano womens group we discussed the HIV epidemic here in Kayafungo.

“HIV is a large problem in kayafungo. There are many orphans here. Everyone in Kayafungo is effected. the whole family is effected if one person is positive. Even if there is not a positive person, everyone knows someone who is.” – Mary, 32, Kayafungo, Kenya

“There are many widows from losing their spouse.” – Josephine, 31, Kayafungo, Kenya

“The orphanes have many problems… Health… No education … And hunger.”- Teresia,33, Kayafungo, Kenya

While these quotes seem heavy and full of despair, solutions can be found in many aspects of life in Kayafungo. One is that people are willing to be tested. Those who find out they are positive are taking immune boosters to improve their health and maintain the life before their diagnoses. This is a huge step from ten years ago when the stigma of HIV made it so no one wanted to even know. Now thousands line up to get tested to know their status!

VCT and PMPTC are both tests done to all pregnant mothers to prevent horizontal transmission, spreading of disease from mother to child, here in Kayafungo. During this test, women are encouraged to deliever their child in a health center to furtjer prevent transmission, as well as ensuring more effective care for the newborn, such as vaccinations and a check up. At home delivery is very popular in Kayafungo as the distance to the health centers can take hours. While some women go to Traditional Birth Attendants the child if at risk for HIV has a smaller survival rate than born in a sterile environment instead of a mud home.

The government has established Community Health Trainers (CHT) in Kayafungo to spread health education on topics such as HIV, maternal and infant health and other diseases. Many of the women in the Kayafungo Mungano Womens group are CHTs and routinely speak to community members about HIV. These women are doing their part in prevention messages which is the first step to reduction of new HIV infections in Kayafungo.

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day. Do your part in fighting HIV by going to get tested. While knowing your status is important, its equally important to know your partners status. By knowing both the most appropriate prevention methods can be taken.

HIV, the virus that causes the disease called AIDS, is still very real in places like rural Kayafungo. But it is also on the rise in developed countries like the United States. Testing is only part of the battle. Prevention and education are the armor needed to win the fight!

Development work will challenge your morals, and ultimately your character in ways personal to your experience. You will learn no amount of school, training or advice will prepare you for your on the ground, real life, real people experience. The places and people you encounter will no longer be a face in a picture, a location on a map, a story you read somewhere, an advertisement or commercial for a charity; each will become a part of your soul and very being. You will ever be changed. You will never see the world again in black and white.

Instead the world will be constantly changing shades of gray with sporadic color bursts erupting when you least expect them.

We are in the midst of the second phase of our Global Development Program in Kayafungo, Kenya. As we speak, the students are working hard to complete monitoring work on our past development projects. They are meeting with community members and leaders, teachers, students and partners to understand the impact that the Secondary School we built is having on students lives, to learn how youth are benefiting from the latrines we constructed at 14 schools, to see how behavior has changed in a community that received our Community Health Training workshop programs and finally, to see how families are benefiting from the new water dam built at Katsangani.

The group remains motivated and hard working, and we are excited to
see how their efforts lead to new projects and initiatives that will
continue to create opportunities for others in such a poor, rural
area. Life in the homestays has proven very rewarding and informative, and students have actually been requesting to spend more time in the local homesteads than at our small motel that is 15 km away. The cultural immersion is intense and exciting, and the group has really enjoyed it. Yesterday we spent the school day with the Youth Polytechnic, a wonderful community run school where children learn practical skills (construction, carpentry, metal work, auto repair) so that they may get jobs in the future. This was so inspiring, and we joined them for sports in the afternoon.

Lily Muldoon, SMRC project director, is back and we have the story to show you in a beautiful new video presentation developed by Andrea Calderson. Watch the 8 minute film and find yourself feeling totally inspired.

Lily Muldoon, project director for Kenya, has just returned to the United States. Her work is a testament to the power of individuals to improve lives. SMRC has worked with her in Kenya for 3 years, and we have achieved life changing improvements working in partnership with the Kayafungo community.

Among the achievements over the last year: Construction of 14 latrines, 20 handwashing stations, one primary school, class at a secondary school, a water dam for 900 people, training for 160 Community Health Trainers, HIV/AIDS testing and education for 132 people, rainwater catchment systems at a primary school and health dispensary, and a micro-loan for a health clinic. Young people can do anything!

There is a real risk that development will start to go backwards in many countries as the money dries up and that the recession will lead to worsening poverty and terrible consequences for the men, women and children caught in its grip.”

- Dr. Claire Melamed, ActionAid’s head of policy

Anyone who has kids knows that every mother and father in Africa must love their children as much as they do, and to watch your kids die, to watch them die and then to die yourself in trying to protect them, that’s not right. And they’ll look back on us lot and say – “people were actually dying in their millions unnecessarily, in front of you, on your TV screens. What were you thinking? You knew what to do to stop it happening and you didn’t do those things. Shame on you.” Be great instead of being ashamed. It can’t be impossible. It must be possible.

- The Girl in the Café

Everywhere I look, Americans are in a blind panic about the economy: TV commentators, my father, my professors, my friends. I need to figure out where the money for my last semester of college is going to come from. The first luxuries we all cut from our personal budgets – before restaurants, video games, or manicures – is always ‘charity.’ It’s the easiest thing in the world to take out of a budget because it won’t affect our lives in the least. It’s hard to even picture how it might affect someone else’s life.

Yet every three seconds a child dies from preventable causes – in most cases from diarrheal disease. Diarrheal disease can usually be prevented by preventing exposure to contaminated water, which is something that SMRC is working to do for a whole community in Kenya. An investment as simple as oral rehydration salts, which cost about ten cents, prevents about 90% of child deaths from diarrheal dehydration. For the ten dollars I just spent on a sandwich in a shop next to SMRC, 100 deaths of children under five could have been prevented.

I know it’s painful for my father to wonder about my tuition, or even to not be able to help me with travel costs. The pain of a mother or father who can’t protect their four year old child from contaminated water that leads to her death is beyond my comprehension. It’s not about guilt or blame, but it is about change. We, as a nation and as students, have made amazing strides towards development in health and education in Africa.  Now we’re at a risk of losing that. Though I know it’s getting more difficult, I’m completely sure that with knowledge and empowerment, we can save more lives than ever before.

This morning, I woke up to an email from my father, it read: “Subject: water; Did you see the report of the World Water Forum meetin in Instanbul, this week? By 2030 when Holden (my nephew) will be 23, there will be 3.9 billion people living under ‘severe water stress. CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE.” Not exactly the uplifting news about World Water Week that I had hoped to read about (See info about the Forum here and the article here).

The news is a reminder of how seriously we must take the world water crisis. Currently 1.1 people lack access to clean drinking water, an astounding figure when you think of that relative to the size of the  United States. That would be the equivalent of 3 times the entire population of the US lacking access to this most fundamental resource.

The news comes as Lily Muldoon, SMRC project director from Kenya returns home after a year-long effort to work with local community members on water, sanitation and education initiatives. Lily will join us in Washington DC for a special happy hour on Tuesday, March 24 from 5-7 to discuss her work. Join us for the event at Mandu on 18th and S, and engage in the complexities of the global water challenge. The need for action is now, and the opportunity to learn first hand from someone taking action, is the ideal place to get started.

Watch the latest film from Kayafungo, Kenya, where a dam is under construction thanks to your generosity! The dam will serve 900 families in the area.

In a new article written by Lily Muldoon, Kenya Project Director, the challenges facing Kayafungo are elucidated. Click here for the full article.

Here is an excerpt:

As of February this year, three people have been reported dead due to starvation. Food relief was trucked in by USAID, but the 2.2 pounds of corn flour per family is far from sufficient to assuage their hunger. The dropout rate in primary school is higher than ever because pupils stay home in search of food and water instead of attending class.

Last week, SMRC asked its supporters to help us build a Dam and a Secondary School. We were running short of funds, and your help would get us past the finish line. Well, you did it, and here are the pictures to show your impact. Thank you so much!!!