Why Africa?

Why Africa? That's a question i am asked again and again when i speak of my work with the Nyanya Project in East Africa. Why Africa?...the implication being, "There are plenty of problems to be solved here...why not put your time and energy into them?" So perhaps i should explain, just a bit.

I became involved in work with people with HIV/AIDS back in the early 1990s, through the area AIDS ministry, Triad Health Project. In those days, AIDS was a deadly disease, taking lives- young lives- with dreadful frequency, and many of those i came to know died from this disease and its complications. But then came ARVs- antiretrovirals- and the complexion of AIDS in began to change, as AIDS in the USA became more and more a chronic disease...not one anyone wanted to contract, to be sure, but one which was not the immediate and certain death sentence it had once been. Then along came Nevirapine, a drug which can be given immediately after birth to the baby of an HIV-positive woman, reducing the chance of mother-to-child transmission by more than 50%, and suddenly children with AIDS became something rare in America, almost like children with polio or diptheria.

But in sub-Saharan Africa, the picture is very different. 76% of all women living with HIV worldwide reside in sub-Saharan Africa, as do 90% of all children living with HIV. Each day, in Africa, 6000 people die of HIV/AIDS-related causes. By the end of 2009 (the latest complete statistics), an estimated 33 million people were living with HIV worldwide, with about 22 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 2.6 million new cases occuring each year. There are also 14.8 million AIDS orphans, which accounts for 10-12% of all children there.

And it is these last- the orphans- that draw me back- or rather, the grandmothers who care for them. Social services are not part of African culture, where the family has always been the basic unit of care, children providing for their parents as they aged. Homes for the aged are unheard-of there, as the younger generations made provision for the continuing care of their elders. At least this is how it used to be. But AIDS has changed that. Now- since the 15-24 year-old population is at greatest risk for the transmission of HIV- much of an entire generation had been and continues to be  wiped out, leaving innumerable children without parents- and elders without children to care for them. Indeed, these elders- mostly women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s- are now the people left to care for their orphaned grandchildren, as they are able and for as long as they can. 

Most often poor and without much education, these courageous, determined women are the focus of the work of the Nyanya Project, as we attempt to train them in new skills to run their small home businesses more effectively, or train them in something new, in order that they might earn sufficient money to care for their grandchildren, to provide adequate food and clothing, to buy uniforms for primary school and pay school fees for secondary school so that these children can receive an education to better their lives.

Grandmothers and grandchildren in Rwanda

Rosa and grandchildren, Tanzania



Eunice O, 73, Kibera, Kenya

To learn more about AIDS in Africa, here are some excellent and informative websites:

• Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative http://www.clintonfoundation.org/
• Pan-African Treatment Access Movement http://www.patam.org/
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria http://www.theglobalfund.org/
• UNAIDS  http://www.unaids.org/
• Doctors without orders "Access to Essential Medicines Campaign"  http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
• Carolina for Kibera http://www.carolinaforkibera.org/
• The Nyanya Project http://www.nyanyaproject.org/

Some small explanation, perhaps, of why i am drawn back to Africa, back to people who have so little and yet are so determined to make a better life for those left in their care by circumstances far beyond their control. And lest you find yourself overwhelmed by the heavy statistics, let me add a word of hope. Within the teeming slum of Kibera, there is a program for young women called Binti Pamoja- Daughters United, in Swahili. Begun by two young American women, Karen Austrian and Emily Verellen, in 2002, Binti is a reproductive health and women's rights program for teenage girls. It is managed by Kenyans with support from US-based volunteers and offers a safe place for teenage girls to harness their creative energies, to give them a sense of hope, and promote mutual understanding in order that they might proactively affect change in their community.

A wonderful book of photos, essays, and comments from the participants in the program has been put together and can be purchsed through their website, http://www.bintipamoja.org/  The book is called Light Box, and is available for a contribution of $45. Know that 100% of the proceeds support the BP Center Scholarship Fund which helps these young women attend high school, something which might otherwise be impossible for them. Looking at the photos, reading the words of these young women, reminds me again and again why i am going back to Kibera, to Kenya, to Rwanda this summer. Africa calls...