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A church, group, or
individual may sponsor feeding AIDS orphans in orphanages supported by
SARAH grassroots projects. All project monies donated will be tax
deductible.
$50 will feed several children in an orphanage for a month
$100 will buy some chickens or goats for women's support groups
$1000-$5000 will help provide shelter, food and clothing for AIDS
orphans
African Widows Brew and sell Changaa
(illegal 80% proof alcohol)
Nyanza, (Western
Kenya) Region
“My name is Esther Asewe; I am a widow aged 68 years and this is where I
live. My husband died and I was inherited, as is our custom. My two sons
and their wives died of HIV/AIDS, I however know that their habit of
drinking too much combining it with smoking bhang was the underlying
factor that led to their contracting the deadly disease. I am left to
look after 8 grandchildren. As if that is not enough, my third son raped
a 12-year-old girl when high on bhang, and now he is in jail. The
husband who inherited me also mysteriously died after a drinking spree."
This is a scene from an inheritance negotiation
for a widow. Sometimes the widow needs to be sexually cleansed before
she can be inherited. She is ashamed to be tested for HIV/AIDS.
“We are both widows. Recently we joined Aninga
support group initiated by the SARAH Network Regional Coordinator,
Benter Ndeda. We no longer feel hopeless, lonely, and rejected were
slowly killing me. My village had ostracized us for having so many
deaths in the home. We brew changaa (80% proof alcohol) to sell. Now 5
out of the 10 of us in the support group no longer brew changaa.
Instead, we are learning how to grow crops that are draught resistant.
We are making crafts out of recycled sunflowers.”
Instead of brewing changaa we dry seeds in the
sun.
We tried to produce chickens to sell but the
draught killed them.
Here are the elders in our village. They are
sitting behind the maize
Silo. We are learning to grow crops that are drought resistant.
Kisumu Sunrise Support Group
Wives w/alcoholic husbands meet in mud hut
Only 3 out of 15 have been tested for HIV
They raise goats to become economically self sufficient
Most are mothers with young children also at risk
Support Group in Rift Valley
HIV positive widows support group who have also
initiated an “overcomers group” cum feeding program for the orphans in
their locality. All had husbands who were alcoholics.
The smiling widows at a meeting with SARAH Network
Regional Coordinator in blue headscarf. Their motto;-“ Life does not end
with being an HIV positive widow, it is just the beginning”
“In Kenya most widows are reduced to beggars, we
have decided to do it differently as a group;- to give rather than to
receive. We therefore initiated lunch feeding program for these school
children who are all orphaned from HIV/AIDS”
“Hmm. Girls have to eat away from boys and men because we do not
have underwear and it is too embarrassing and too dangerous. We might
forced into sex before we are ready.”
Mt Kenya Teachers
Attended training at Limuru and now design a
Prevention
Curriculum for their schools
Have started an orphanage for AIDS orphans
Long to have posters like these in their
classrooms
Wish they had Physicians trained in Addiction
Medicine
Complete information
about each and every project under the SARAH Network can be obtained by
emailing
maggie_oketch@yahoo.com
SARAH
Network Supervisors
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