Highlights From SVH-Kuria
SVH-Kuria serves one of Kenya ’s poorest district, which has about 5,700 AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children. The prevalence of HIV there is about 10 percent among the population of 200,000, most of whom are members of the Kuria tribal culture.
About 80 percent of the people in the Kuria District of Nyanza Province live below the poverty line. That severe poverty has exposed many families to major health risks. Also, this part of western Kenya lags behind other areas in education. Primary-school registration, attendance and retention are erratic, especially for girls. Secondary-school attendance is even worse.
The poverty renders families ineffective in sufficiently supporting OVC, and the suffering is the worst among child-headed households.
The Kenyan government has recognized the Village, formed in 2005, as an official Community-Based Organization. Led by a locally elected management committee of volunteers, Kuria aims to counter the effects of HIV/AIDS by providing essential services to OVC, and to ensure that the children remain HIV-negative or live positively with HIV.
As with all SVHs, the key elements of Kuria’s plans are love, food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, income generation, love, psycho-social encouragement, and hope.
The SVH is focused on promoting the idea that, as its motto says, Girls Are Valuable, Always. This is vital in a society steeped in destructive traditions, including the selling of girls; early marriage; and mandatory clitorectomy, or female genital mutilation (FGM), which continues to fan the fire of AIDS transmission.
SOTENI will adapt the sporadic successes of religious and public-health programs that have tried to stop FGM. A key step is for people to acknowledge that girls are as valuable as boys.
SI, SK and SVH-Kuria plan to prepare the surrounding community for a long-term intervention to end FGM. Success requires a minimum of two years, and of course long-term cultural change requires many more years.
The Village sponsors a children’s sports program, with a couple of twists:
While the players are socializing during practices, instructors educate them about HIV/AIDS.
And to attract young people and share lessons about HIV/AIDS, the Village sponsored about 15 youth football games in 2006. Hundreds of people attended each soccer game, after which SVH representatives addressed the crowd and answered questions. The committee plans to expand the program, including girls’ volleyball in the mix.
The newest Village of Hope , Kuria also seeks to strengthen existing community networks and to link with other stakeholders in community development and AIDS prevention. Sustainability of the services is based on grassroots contributions of material, human, and technical resources.
For example, the local county council has contributed 22 acres to the Village for development. Plans are to use the land for (1) income generation through sustainable farming and (2) a community education center also used as a “rescue center” to protect girls from the harmful local practices until the customs change.
Sponsoring orphans
At this time the SI Sponsorship program does not directly support children here, but we would love to see the program expanded to here. For more information see Sponsorship section.
click
