If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

If I kept it to myself
As a HBC giver I continued taking care of her
at home, for she had no close relatives to look
after her. KENWA gave her vocational training as
a hairdresser in March 2005. After two months
she dropped out, claiming that her kids were
starving. Beatrice went back to her former ways
of earning a living. It was during this time that, out
of desperation, she tried to commit suicide. She
was completely unable to meet her children’s
needs. She swallowed some poisonous
chemicals but luckily a neighbour who heard
unusual painful groaning coming from Beatrice’s
house rescued her. KENWA offered a vehicle to
take her to hospital.
During her stay in hospital we stayed with her
kids at the drop-in-centre. She fully recovered
and I continued counselling her for a period of
two months. After much counselling, she thought
of opening a business. She told me she was
ready to start a new life although it took a lot of
will power for her to stop commercial sex work.
She thought that she had a genetic predisposition
to be a CSW.
I wrote a letter to the head of KENWA, Asunta,
humbly requesting capital to help Beatrice,
which Asunta responded to positively. Currently,
Beatrice is running a small green grocery kiosk,
although she tells me that she had a very hard
time adjusting to her new business. She is one of
our active group therapy members. She says that
sometimes when she goes a day without selling
she is tempted to go to her former business. She
keeps her strength by visiting the drop-in-centre.
As a community health care worker, I have
experienced some challenges with our clients.
First of all the Mathare area does not have
proper waste disposal facilities and toilets. This
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makes the environment unhygienic, and general
communicable diseases are very common. There
are too many expectations beyond what we can
do, such as paying house rent and hospital bills,
and inadequate resources to nurse a client, like
soap for washing. Relatives and the community
sometimes expect KENWA to meet all the funeral
expenses when a patient dies, claiming that we
used to take care of her. We also have to report
and file cases of child abuse, child negligence
and child labour to the police.
There is also much fear and insecurity around
working hours. We are often called at night
to take clients to hospital. In addition, some
clients become sexually attracted to their care
givers, putting them in a very awkward and
embarrassing position. Some of the CHWS meet
arrogant drunkards while distributing condoms in
the local bars and lodges.
The issue of disclosure of HIV status, especially
between married couples, is very tricky. We
have many cases of discordant couples that are
silent because they fear rejection from spouses
if they disclose their status. Our work is quite
demanding. It requires total dedication, time and
commitment in client treatment follow-up.
Born: 1978
Country: Kenya
Organisation: KENWA
Campaigns for:
professional
reconversion, support,
training, counselling of
HIV positive people.