Kenya: Famine Fuels AIDS Pandemic
Kenya Times, April 2006, By Ben Mitukaa
Kenya--The woman looks wasted, weary, hungry, and unhealthy. She is frail and black blisters mark her body like strange tatoo marks. A moment of silence. Then she turns her eyes slowly towards the prelate’s door. Suddenly, the door bursts open.
With a careful handshake, Bishop Daniel Osoi emerges to usher into his house yet another visitor. The Bishop’s house is a humble affair of brown mud walls and yellowing mabati .
Welcome to Taretuoki Aids Project at Emali township along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. The project is funded by Erikshalpen of Sweden, but the patients have run short of medicines and food.
For the last one month, the patients have no food supply they are required to take with ARV medication. Uncertainty hangs in the air because of a raging tug-of-war between the government and the Global Fund, the main sponsor of the project. Panic is spreading among the patients, many of whom have retreated to their death beds.
“We gave the last supply of food and drugs about a month ago, says Bishop Osoi, “The patients will develop resistance to the Aids drugs.
TAP is a church-run project that at once crammed with Aids patients and hungry people. Each time Bishop Osoi opens his door, a hungry, weak and sick face greets him. But he is not surprised. The project office is familiar with sickness, starvation and death. Relief agencies say the Aids crisis is worsening poverty and hunger, with both evils fueling each other. According to CARE International, both the Aids and food crisis across Africa is worsening.
In Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, failed rains and underlying poverty have led to a catastrophic food water crisis affecting more than 12 million people. It is feared that in the process, the Aids scouge has multiplied far ahead of what is officially acknowledged.
As for the killer disease, Bishop Osoi has received hundreds of cases in the last three months alone. All of them demand his urgent attention; each day the hungry and the sick come not only to confess that they harbour the killer virus; they also want his intervention to help them get help, any help. About twenty kilometres away is a US-funded Aids facility.
“I have HIV/Aids”, the young woman bursts out, tears welling up in her eyes. The clergyman sits speechless, oblivious of the cosiness of the sofa set. One of his hands holds his chin in pensive mood.
“ I leave my children to you. I am dying,” she continues.
In her hands is the damning medical report. It says she is HIV positive. It is like being on death row. With a firing squad in facing you. With the devastating hunger, more and more people are dying of Aids.
The woman’s two year old daughter looks pleadingly, knowingly. The Bishop nods, winces in quiet understanding. He provides them with transport to the distant Mbirikani Aids village.
There, the woman will be screened and tested and her young daughter fed.
The Emali church compound is a symbolic spot in the war against Aids, which threatens to wipe out mankind.The people of Emali are lucky though, at least 35 of them are on anti –retro virals treatment, which means they may live a little longer. But only if they get good food to eat.
Scores of children of orphaned by Aids have found homes and solace from Bishop Osoi. Each day, several of the children and their dying parents and guardians throng the compound in search of medical and food aid. Medics are upbeat about ARVs, saying the drugs are working wonders by helping to prolong the lives of patients.
Some patients are said to have returned to work, digging holes to plant plantains. But a recent delay in supply of the drugs means many of them have discontinued medication. He is not a medic himself, and his resources are limited, so Bishop Osoi has a heavy task. Born as Tavariya in 1953 to a veterinary father at Enkasurai village of Olotologum location in Mashuru division in Kajiado district, he was the last born of his parents.
His wealthy parents were members of the Pentecostal Evangelistic of Africa Fellowship (PEFA), the pioneer church whose missionaries had since ventured into Maasailand.
In 1957, Osoi joined Mashuru primary school. His father wanted him to study hard and carry on the family mantle, but his education was disrupted by nomadism. He briefly migrated to Matapato in 1958 but soon returned to continue with his education.
In 1970, he joined Kumusi Bible College and trained as a pastor. He attained a Diploma in Theology three years later. Upon graduation, he began evangelistic duties at Loitokitok. Later on, he was sent back to Mashuru.
By, then he had joined the Evangelical Free Missionary church and gone back to Moshi for another stint of religious training.
In October 1974, he was posted to Emali, a dusty town which straddles the borders of Makueni, Machakos, and Kajiado districts. For over 30 years, Bishop Osoi has cut a niche for himself as
philanthropist.
Source: Kenya Times Online
Kenya--The woman looks wasted, weary, hungry, and unhealthy. She is frail and black blisters mark her body like strange tatoo marks. A moment of silence. Then she turns her eyes slowly towards the prelate’s door. Suddenly, the door bursts open.
With a careful handshake, Bishop Daniel Osoi emerges to usher into his house yet another visitor. The Bishop’s house is a humble affair of brown mud walls and yellowing mabati .
Welcome to Taretuoki Aids Project at Emali township along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. The project is funded by Erikshalpen of Sweden, but the patients have run short of medicines and food.
For the last one month, the patients have no food supply they are required to take with ARV medication. Uncertainty hangs in the air because of a raging tug-of-war between the government and the Global Fund, the main sponsor of the project. Panic is spreading among the patients, many of whom have retreated to their death beds.
“We gave the last supply of food and drugs about a month ago, says Bishop Osoi, “The patients will develop resistance to the Aids drugs.
TAP is a church-run project that at once crammed with Aids patients and hungry people. Each time Bishop Osoi opens his door, a hungry, weak and sick face greets him. But he is not surprised. The project office is familiar with sickness, starvation and death. Relief agencies say the Aids crisis is worsening poverty and hunger, with both evils fueling each other. According to CARE International, both the Aids and food crisis across Africa is worsening.
In Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, failed rains and underlying poverty have led to a catastrophic food water crisis affecting more than 12 million people. It is feared that in the process, the Aids scouge has multiplied far ahead of what is officially acknowledged.
As for the killer disease, Bishop Osoi has received hundreds of cases in the last three months alone. All of them demand his urgent attention; each day the hungry and the sick come not only to confess that they harbour the killer virus; they also want his intervention to help them get help, any help. About twenty kilometres away is a US-funded Aids facility.
“I have HIV/Aids”, the young woman bursts out, tears welling up in her eyes. The clergyman sits speechless, oblivious of the cosiness of the sofa set. One of his hands holds his chin in pensive mood.
“ I leave my children to you. I am dying,” she continues.
In her hands is the damning medical report. It says she is HIV positive. It is like being on death row. With a firing squad in facing you. With the devastating hunger, more and more people are dying of Aids.
The woman’s two year old daughter looks pleadingly, knowingly. The Bishop nods, winces in quiet understanding. He provides them with transport to the distant Mbirikani Aids village.
There, the woman will be screened and tested and her young daughter fed.
The Emali church compound is a symbolic spot in the war against Aids, which threatens to wipe out mankind.The people of Emali are lucky though, at least 35 of them are on anti –retro virals treatment, which means they may live a little longer. But only if they get good food to eat.
Scores of children of orphaned by Aids have found homes and solace from Bishop Osoi. Each day, several of the children and their dying parents and guardians throng the compound in search of medical and food aid. Medics are upbeat about ARVs, saying the drugs are working wonders by helping to prolong the lives of patients.
Some patients are said to have returned to work, digging holes to plant plantains. But a recent delay in supply of the drugs means many of them have discontinued medication. He is not a medic himself, and his resources are limited, so Bishop Osoi has a heavy task. Born as Tavariya in 1953 to a veterinary father at Enkasurai village of Olotologum location in Mashuru division in Kajiado district, he was the last born of his parents.
His wealthy parents were members of the Pentecostal Evangelistic of Africa Fellowship (PEFA), the pioneer church whose missionaries had since ventured into Maasailand.
In 1957, Osoi joined Mashuru primary school. His father wanted him to study hard and carry on the family mantle, but his education was disrupted by nomadism. He briefly migrated to Matapato in 1958 but soon returned to continue with his education.
In 1970, he joined Kumusi Bible College and trained as a pastor. He attained a Diploma in Theology three years later. Upon graduation, he began evangelistic duties at Loitokitok. Later on, he was sent back to Mashuru.
By, then he had joined the Evangelical Free Missionary church and gone back to Moshi for another stint of religious training.
In October 1974, he was posted to Emali, a dusty town which straddles the borders of Makueni, Machakos, and Kajiado districts. For over 30 years, Bishop Osoi has cut a niche for himself as
philanthropist.
Source: Kenya Times Online
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 9:36 am
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