by RACHEL MUTHONI
Hidaya Mugure, age 37, takes her antiretroviral therapy (ART). PHOTO/Rachel Muthoni
If only Kenyan society would choose to understand their kin and friends who are HIV-positive, deaths resulting from this virus could be reduced significantly. But the stigma associated with being infected or affected by HIV hinders such acceptance and understanding, and makes many reject their friends and relatives when they are diagnosed.
“Education, social status and religion are the main factors that influence attitude towards HIV,” says Paul Ndegwa, of Ambassadors of Change NGO. “[Some] people are kept indoors once their families discover they are HIV-positive. They suffer bedridden, and some even die.”
Unfortunately, cases of rejection by family members and friends are on the rise, especially among the less literate and poorer communities in Kenya. Such is the case of 37-year-old Hidaya Mugure, whose family watched as her daughter died from HIV-related ailments.
Mugure lives in Bondeni slums in the outskirts of Nakuru town, 150 kilometers west of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. One of the largest and oldest slums in Nakuru, Bondeni is home to about 2,000 people. Most families live in single rooms that serve as kitchen, bed, and sitting room.
I do not know how many people are HIV-positive in this sprawling slum. But I can attest to having visited about 50 homes in my research, and each home had one or two HIV-positive people. As a journalist I write about issues relating to poverty, HIV, children and women especially in slums and marginalized other areas.
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