The CORE Initiative provided financial and capacity-building assistance to two Kenyan faith-based organizations in support of community-level HIV/AIDS prevention, stigma reduction, and care and support activities. The Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) and the Kenya Network of Religious Leaders Living with and/or Personally Affected by HIV/AIDS implemented activities in Kenya over a six-month period in 2006.

OAIC

OAIC is an association of African churches with membership in 21 African countries. The goal of the OAIC HIV/AIDS program is to build the capacity of member churches and the communities they serve to design and implement appropriate responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In Kenya, the Strengthening the ability of 14 Congregations and CBOs to design and implement effective responses to HIV and AIDS in Kisumu and Vihiga Districts project built on earlier activities supported by the CORE Initiative. Through this project, OAIC provided training in home-based care, stigma reduction, behavior change communication, food processing, and small enterprise development to community members.

OAIC capitalized on its monthly cluster meetings with congregations to provide ongoing support to community members involved in the project. OAIC identified 10 community members to serve as trainers in home-based care. Trainers returned to their communities to care for individuals affected by HIV or AIDS. In addition to providing direct care in 14 communities, care givers trained 40 family members in care provision. In some communities, care givers worked with other congregation members to provide support to orphans and other vulnerable children. Support varied widely in different communities but some examples of the support provided by communities includes food, school uniforms, educational materials, and counseling.

KENERELA

Founded in 2003, the Kenya Network of Religious Leaders Living with and/or Personally Affected by HIV/AIDS is aimed at helping religious leaders in Kenya live openly and become agents of change by breaking stigma, silence, and inaction.

KENERELA’s Home Based Care Project was designed to reduce stigma and enhance care and support provision in 20 congregations in western Kenya. One of the project’s goals was to increase the involvement of religious leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/AIDS in taking actions to help themselves and their communities.

Fourteen religious leaders (including women’s group leaders and youth group leaders as well as clergy members) received training in home-based care. After receiving training, they returned to their communities to train care takers living with those who are affected by HIV or AIDS. In addition, they also provided direct care services to community members. Types of care provided by KENERELA care givers includes counseling, helping with fields or gardens, washing the bedridden, cleaning their houses, and providing nutritional advice.

Summary Results ¹

Discussions with community members revealed two primary results of the interventions by OAIC and KENERELA. First, community members reported a reduction in self-stigma, as evidenced by an increased willingness of people to access testing and treatment and speak openly about their status. For example, Clarice Anyango had been sick for a long time before she attended the home-based care training sponsored by KENERELA. After the training, she went for testing and was found to be HIV positive. She has since started taking anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) and is now feeling better.

Secondly, there were a number of positive responses regarding the increased openness of religious leaders to discuss HIV/AIDS and provide support to members of their congregations. Some people also reported that religious leaders have begun using less stigmatizing language when discussing HIV and AIDS with their congregants. Betty Onyango, a field coordinator for OAIC, said that she feels that the church, “now acts as a place of hope”.

KENERELA and OAIC reported the following results of their activities:

• 24 people trained to be Trainers of Trainers in home-based care
• 39 care givers trained in home-based care
• 464 care takers received training in home-based care
• 2332 orphans and other vulnerable children receiving support
• 48 child heads of household trained in small enterprise development
• 15 trainers received training in food processing
• 210 school children received uniforms

OAIC’s cluster structure, where community group representatives come together monthly to share experiences, has been very beneficial to project participants. It has allowed them to discuss the burnout problem and other challenges, while providing support and encouragement. Many participants commented on the benefit of the cluster meetings and OAIC’s field coordinator remarked how it has made groups realize that if they work together they can solve their own problems.

In addition to the accomplishments in the areas of stigma reduction and care and support, community members identified other benefits to the project, including a greater sense of empowerment. Reverend Amos Ouma Odera said that community members previously did not see themselves as part of the problem. Now, he feels, people see that they do have a role to play and that they need to support others in their communities. Reverend Jotham Odari, a field coordinator for OAIC, said that he also realized how many resources there were in the community. Previously he thought that training had to be done by a professional, but as a result of the project he realized that the participants in the training were also resources because they had so much experience on the ground.

Several individuals who received care commented on how it felt to know that there was someone in the community who cared for them and who was willing to help them. They reported feeling a sense of isolation, but that having someone to talk to helped to relieve many of their burdens. One client, Leah, reported feeling abandoned after the death of her husband. When the Al-Muuminat Tilalwa Women’s Group started visiting her and talking with her she felt love and hope, even though her family was not providing her with love and support at the time. The support she received from the group helped her regain hope. Leah now says that she sees how it is possible to live with HIV and that she now tries to be a good role model for other people, sharing the knowledge she has learned from the women’s group.

Challenges

Grantee staff and community members reported a number of challenges in successfully implementing HIV/AIDS activities. These include:

• a lack of resources to access testing and treatment services, which are often located long distances from the community;
• the difficulty of implementing volunteer-based project in an area where other NGOs have provided financial support to those implementing activities or utilizing services;
• a lack of food in some places discouraging individuals from taking their ARVs;
• a high level of community expectation regarding the types of support and assistance to be provided by care givers; and
• negative responses from some community members when support is provided to only one child within a household.

Conclusion

Though implemented during a short time period, initial results from community members indicate a very positive response to the activities initiated by OAIC and KENERELA. KENERELA has generated a lot of excitement over their involvement of religious leaders in HIV/AIDS activities. As a result, KENERELA is now planning to implement similar activities in other regions in Kenya. With a long history of working in the communities involved in this project, OAIC is exploring ways to strengthen existing activities in these communities and others. Through its monthly cluster meetings, OAIC continues to provide support and encouragement to congregation members.

¹ Information was compiled from grantee reports and from meetings conducted with community groups and individuals in the areas of Nandi, Kisumu, and Vihiga.  Two group meetings brought together community group representatives from the OAIC projects in Vihiga and Kisumu.  In addition, 17 visits were conducted with different community groups and 8 visits were conducted with individual care givers or beneficiaries.