SOTENI KENYA OVERVIEW
The Villages of Hope Model
SOTENI Kenya is a registered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) building a model for interdependent development. SK seeks to break the cycle of poverty and disease by drawing on indigenous resources and leadership.
Although cross-tribal collaboration is rare in Kenya, nine volunteer directors from five ethnic backgrounds work together to manage the complementary programs enabling orphans of AIDS to become leaders in the fight against AIDS.
Most activities occur through our network of four rural “Villages of Hope.” Baseline surveys identified more than 10,000 orphans whose households and communities SOTENI Kenya has helped support through management training, material support (including food, clothing and school fees), home-based care, disease-prevention education, and broadened opportunities.
The Kenyan government has recognized each Village of Hope as an official Community-Based Organization (CBO). Locally elected volunteer management committees lead the Villages. Those panels seek to counter the effects of HIV/AIDS by providing essential services and ensuring that the children either remain HIV-negative or live positively with HIV.
To promote sustainability of the services, the Villages are located only where communities have contributed substantial resources, such as land, for income-generation.
SK’s leaders have raised money while forming partnerships with institutions such as the Anglican Church of Kenya, and the Ministry of Health. SK will house research and training in HIV/AIDS care and prevention. SOTENI’s rigorous monitoring and evaluation will lead to adaptation, expansion and replication of programs as we widely share what we have achieved and learned.
D
Photo: SOTENI Kenya Board of Directors (l to r) back row: Dr. Mahende Sinda, Hon. Kilemi Mwiria, PhD, Vice Chair,
Muthee Katheru, and Christopher Opondi. Front row: Jane Jane Gathoni Nyutu and Martina Malache
AIDS Barefoot Doctors
Through SOTENI’s innovative and effective “AIDS Barefoot Doctors” program, AIDS orphans can become leaders in the fight against the disease.
In early 2006, the first cadres of AIDS Barefoot Doctors (ABDs) began providing home-based care, support, and disease-prevention messages to persons living with HIV/AIDS and members of their households in SVH-Mituntu and SVH-Mbakalo. So far, 24 ABDs have been trained and made more than 400 home visits.
To become ABDs, trainees receive education in first aid, elementary primary care, household hygiene, community public health, HIV prevention, referrals to local health-care providers, programmatic reporting, and business practices. The trainees include orphans and persons living with HIV/AIDS.
The ABDs are intended to be self-sustaining, their income deriving from a combination of money from local and international grants, fees for service, and the sale of commodities such as vitamins and anti-malarial bed nets for the prevention of mosquito bites.
In SOTENI’s guiding principles, the “E” in SOTENI stands for Epidemiology, the science of prevention. Prevention is more cost-effective than treatment. Additionally, prevention and treatment help each other in stopping the AIDS pandemic. All of SOTENI’s activities – from promotion of safe sexual behavior to vocational training for jobs that can replace sex work – directly or indirectly prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. As ABDs, and leaders in the community, the orphans themselves become partners in preventing their own generation from succumbing to the disease.
In April of 2008 SOTENI Internation received a grant from the MAC Global Foundation to restart the ABD Program in SVH-Mituntu and SVH-Mbakalo. The funding will cover 6 ABDs for each SVH for one year.
photo: (l to r) George Ngaruiya, Project Manger for the MAC/ABD project,
Randie Marsh, SOTENI International Director and Edward Wanyonyi, SOTENI Kenya Programme Manager
After a successful start for the ABDs, SOTENI is seeking resources to expand the program to all four Villages of Hope.
SOTENI Kenya organizational structure