Chogoria and Village Hopecore International

Hello from Nairobi!

I'm now back in Nairobi after 2 weeks in Chogoria and happy to have Internet access! Chogoria, located amongst rolling mountains covered in tea and banana plantations, is a completely different world. Despite the natural beauty, the vast majority of the people living in the region are stuck in poverty and suffering from constant illness. Kenya has 60% unemployment and a very disproportionate percentage of people below 25. Chogoria feels the effects of the lack of jobs with many people living on less than $1 per day.

As we drove up to the Safari Cafe on our first day in Chogoria time froze as the people digging next to the road, buying fruits at the market and walking to school stopped what they were doing to follow our every move with their eyes. Dr. Mugambe told us many of them had never seen a white person and that there had probably never been such a large group (8 of us) in Chogoria at one time. We explored the market in town which had fresh fruit stands selling delicious passion fruit and papaya and many used clothes shipped over from the U.S. and Europe.

We spent the first few days staying in a Motel as we learned about the village and how to stay healthy. Avoiding malaria is quite a challenge--not only taking the medication, but applying DEET in the mornings and at night, burning mosquito coils to keep the bugs out of our room and treating mosquito nets to sleep under. Our 2 trip mantras were: 1) No one gets traveler's diarrhea and 2) No one gets malaria.

After 3 nights we moved into homestays. I stayed with Dr. Mugambe's sister, Mama Mary. The house was definitely upper class for Chogoria. We had piped water (most of the time) and a toilet. There was no electricity and cooking was done over fire wood in the kitchen. In Mary's home lived her mother who was 90 (or around that--many people here do not know their actual age), one of Mary's daughters, Edith, 2 of her grandchildren, Brian and Ivonne, a housekeeper and her 6-month old daughter and a man who looked after the cow. However, it soon became clear that much of the time there are many more people living there including another of Mary's daughters and a son. It took us a while to figure out exactly who was who in the family as they often referred to friends as sisters or cousins.

During our stay we experienced the illness faced so frequently by our families. 3 people in family had malaria and the little boy, Brian, was coughing and spitting almost non-stop. They said he had been like that since birth. Both my roommate Laura and I also caught little colds. We could see what a challenge it is to stay healthy in this environment. It was a similar story in the other homestays where one person had Typhoid Fever and many others had malaria. When we visited Chogoria’s hospital we also learned the most common sicknesses are malaria and TB as well as AIDS. The nurse described how just a few years ago the hospital was full of people with AIDS, yet increasing encouragement of home care had eased some of the burden.

The day began at 6 am when everyone woke up to begin heating water for baths, milking the cow, doing laundry and preparing breakfast. We took baths in basins by combining heated water with cold piped water. During the day, we worked with Village Hopecore International, founded by Dr. Mugambe to work towards poverty eradication. Village Hopecore uses a 3-pronged strategy of education, economics and health. VHI provides $400 loans to groups of 12 people who must repay the loan over an 18 month period. If anyone in the group defaults, then the other members must compensate for them in order to be able to take out another loan. The groups also receive business training to learn what is an effective business. Many used the loan to buy a cow which provides milk for the family and manure for the farm. Village Hopecore is also the first microfinance bank to give loans to HIV+ people who consistently take their ARVs and so far everyone has repaid.

Our role in Chogoria was to visit two groups of HIV+ people who hope to receive VHI loans. We recorded their stories and took pictures in hopes of raising enough money for their groups to get loans. The unfunded groups build credit by participating in Merry-Go-Rounds in which they loan about $110 to a different member of the group once a month.

Conducting these interviews was my favorite part of being in Chogoria. We interviewed one women who was an HIV activist teaching people to live positively with HIV and also teaching young people how to avoid the virus. However, others had not yet told family members out of fear of being made fun of or neglected. Yet, overall, there is significant progress being made in confronting HIV. In many towns there are murals painted on the walls about AIDS and Voluntary Testing Clinics. The people we interviewed also described how ten years ago people ran away from anyone with HIV. They associated HIV with witchcraft, refused to eat with positive people and forced some HIV+ people to lose their jobs since co-workers did not want to work with them. Now, about 10% of people in Chogoria have HIV and people are much more educated. Although the stigma is far from gone, many people said they feel comfortable making their status public under the current conditions.

The majority of the people we interviewed were women with the classic story of HIV in Africa. Most often their husband was a truck driver or a migrant worker in one of Kenya’s big cities. Usually the women had been consistently sick for many years and only got tested when the doctor encouraged it or as part of prenatal care. However, for women who had children more than 3 years ago they were often not tested for HIV and it was heartbreaking to meet the young HIV+ children.

I am so happy to have been able to work with VHI. The employees and the people on loans are so motivated to improve their situation. I was equally impressed by the village’s rapidly changing attitudes towards HIV. Many of the infected people I interviewed described the shock and depression following their positive test. While some were clearly still stuck in this stage, others described how counselling and friendship helped them to escape depression and look to live a full and meaningful life. HIV is no longer a death sentence and as people see others living decades on ARVs, the village is beginning to realize HIV+ people are going to be around for a long time.

I wish I had time to write more and I’m sorry I do not have time to write better!… I will write soon about the amazing stories of Dr. Mugambe and his employees.

I hope everyone is having a great summer! Take care!

Avery

P.S. Carnivore

The last few days I’ve been in Nairobi with Ashleigh and Josh. The first night we feasted at Carnivore, an all-you-can-eat restaurant featuring crocodile, ostrich meat balls, pork, sausage, chicken, beef, lamb, ribs… the list goes on. It was quite an experience as expats and safari tourists gathered to be served by carvers dressed in Zebra and tiger stripes!