|
 |
||
|---|---|---|
 |
The unresolved challenge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic needs no introduction, and articulating its continued decimation of the African continent is beyond the scope of our expression. We choose instead to focus on the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS at the personal levels of the community, family, and individual. Despite persistent educational outreach and treatment efforts, communities throughout Africa still shun those infected with the disease. The family unit unravels as children become orphaned and/or infected themselves. The infected individual must drastically reorient his or her livelihood, sustainability, and self-worth in an environment of limited support. |
|
 |
Asunta Wagura was one such woman to encounter this totality of HIV/AIDS. At the age of 22, she was studying at the Nairobi Medical School in Kenya when she was diagnosed as HIV-positive. Expelled from school and ostracized by her family and community, she made the brave decision to take action against the disease and its associated stigma. In 1993, she united with four other HIV-positive women to found KENWA, a grassroots, community-based organization that both serves and employs infected individuals. What began as a meeting group for experience sharing and consolation today directly supports almost 7,000 people in Kenya through eight separate centers in rural and urban areas. KENWA administers its activities under three broad program areas: care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS, the support of orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS, and policy advocacy for the current and future rights and needs of affected individuals. KENWA has a positive bias toward supporting women, who have greater rates of HIV infection due to their social and economic positions. KENWA houses approximately 1,700 orphans and provides medication to 2 percent of all Kenyans on anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy for the treatment of AIDS. KENWA defines itself as a program of last resort for women, men, and children with nowhere else to turn. |
|
 |
The cause of HIV/AIDS has generated an admirable and devoted response around the world from health experts, student groups, corporations, and popular cultural icons such as Bono and Bill Gates. In the Running will support and raise awareness for women like Asunta, who fight the disease on the ground, every hour of every day, with severely limited resources, and on a personal level. Asunta has been compared to Mother Teresa, and KENWA built its name in Kenya through word of mouth, sustained by a track record of good work for individual people. A small, African organization with big goals, KENWA is committed to becoming a self-sustainable and replicable model for grassroots AIDS-based organizations worldwide by 2010. 
|
|
