An interview with Steven Otieno - Political tension and HIV/AIDS support work in Kenya

In the second of our interviews this week, here is Steven Otieno from Cadif Kenya. Steven represented Kisumu, Kenya at our latest international conference, Footstep 12, in Slovakia last year. Cadif operate in the slum region of Kisumu, right on the shore of Lake Victoria. Cadif improve the lives of many through their health and education programmes. We talked about the current political situation in Kenya, Cadif's work in 2011 and some potential new volunteering opportunities.

13:39

Hi Steven

Hi, how is it going?

Good thanks. I'm doing some interviews for our Global Footsteps blog page, would you mind answering a few questions?

No

just send me some

Great, so firstly, how is life in Kisumu today?

Kisumu is warm, there was some rain but generaly okay, there is absolute peace but political temperature is raising.

What's happening politically?

Kisumu is ODM zone and there are many ODM politician from Rift Valley that want to ditch the party. This is because they are being left to take personal responsibility for their involvement in the 2007 post election violence. So there are ethnical blames between Rift valley and Nyanza on Raila Odinga's position at the post election violence trial in the Hague.

Raila Odinga is the current Prime Minister correct?

What does ODM stand for?

yes

from ODM

ODM Stand for Orange Democratic Movement

What do you mean by 'ethnical blames'?

Political leaders from Rift valley who are named to have sponsored the 2007 post election violence, most of them are from ODM, so the people of Rift valley (Kalenjin) expected Odinga to defend them, reasoning that all that happened was for benefit of Raila Odinga. Luo's in Nyanza oppose this view point and are very strong on their stance. They believe that the political leaders have to take personal responsibility for their involvement. This would be damaging to the implicated politicians, so they are threatening to leave the ODM if Odinga does not support them. This is a hot debate and accusation ahead of 2012 General election

Kalenjin and Luo are both tribes in the region, is that correct? And Kisumu is home to mostly Luo?

Yes

Kalenjin are from Rift valey region in Kenya while Luos are from Nyanza Region

Are you worried that violence could once again erupt in Kisumu?

That is a slight fear but only if the constitution is not fully implemented. If it is not there will be worse violence in 2012 than 2007.

That would be terrible. So are people hopeful about the new constitution?

Yes, its taking root, Kenya anti-corruption is now little bit effective due to new constitutions, but there is still a lot of amendment needed for it to be effective.

Things are moving slowly in the right direction.

yes

What about CADIFKenya, what does the week ahead hold for you all?

At CADIF we have started the year well, we are now starting our school outreaches , this week we will have 3 outreaches every week, we are also having community mobilization and sensitization in 2 locations, 4 moonlight Voluntary counseling and testing at night targeting commercial sex workers and their clients

What exactly is sensitisation?

This is an organized forum for creating awareness on HIV/AIDS within slum areas

check on our videos on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFE6u3jGMJ8&feature=share

I see, thanks, I will do that.

Is the HIV/AIDS situation getting better or worse at the moment?

The prevelance rate is going down among the youth but increasing among the couples and with that, we are lobbying for small grant to target couples for HIV education

To who will you apply for that grant?

Well I'm loking at the government through National Aid control council, and partners like Global Footsteps.

Unfortunately we cannot directly send money to fund projects like this, but we could try and send you a volunteer to help deliver the program and raise some funds for you too.

Thank you

I could also write you a recommendation letter.

would that help?

That will be helpful

I can do that for you no problem.

And the issues of having one of us join some of your volunteers for fundraising in UK later this year or next year, can it be productive?

This may well be feasible and useful yes. We will have to to discuss this further another time.

Its okay, so do you have some volunteer that are showing intrest to come?

We are going to do a big push for volunteers in the next few months, I really hope to get two people to Kisumu to work with Cadif and Kosimbo.

Thanks for the updates Steve, it is really great to hear what you have been up to.

Thank you, Volker was working on some reports, I will send them to you.

I'll look forward to them. Do you have any messages for our Global Footsteps members?

CADIF has been happy for the Global footsteps exposure and we will be sharing our project updates, opening up possibilities to partner. We are working on our new website, we will share with you our progress.

The Tungari Youth Project

On Tuesday morning we visited a volunteer run mobile HIV testing service on the fringes of one of Kisumu's slum's.

Tuesday 7th July - Morning

On Tuesday morning we went off to meet my host, Shamsia Nuru, who volunteers for a HIV testing organisation. The Tungari Youth Project is a mobile HIV testing service. Each day 6 stations are set up on the fringes of Kisumu’s slum areas and people voluntarily arrive to be tested. Shamsia told us how it was often difficult to encourage people to come to be testing, a combination of fear, shame and lack of awareness means that the testers (there are around 5 at each station) usually fail to meet their target of 10 tests a day. Shamsia and her colleagues are all volunteers, they are trained on how to use basic testing kits and how to counsel those who test positive and give information to those who test negative on how to stay infection free. The results are almost instantaneous and those who test positive are referred to a doctor immediately so that they can begin treatment as soon as possible. The testing kits are very expensive, it costs over 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £10) to test each person. The money is raised by a charity in Atlanta in the USA.

At present around 300 people are tested each day across the 6 stations, so far they have tested around 35% of the population, they aim to increase this to 80% by the end of 2010, they need more money. HIV is a huge problem here, it spreads rapidly because of prostitution, the tendency for men and women to have polygamous marriages, the lack of awareness about whether one is infected or not, the reluctance of men to use condoms and the generally low levels of personal hygiene. There is a campaign at the moment for males to be circumscribed as this reduces the chance that they can contract and pass on the infection, it is a difficult campaign because men do not like to do it. The traditional methods of circumcision sound brutal, they involve a machete, a big stone and a lot of blood. These methods are still in practice in some rural areas around Kisumu but men are now given the opportunity to have the operation using modern hygienic methods.

Last week Shamsia and her colleagues has been on a course to train them in how to go door to door in the slums to try to encourage people to take tests in the privacy of their own homes. I'm sure this will make a big difference to the amount of tests they can get done. It is sure, however, to be much harder work for the volunteers, but they seem to be a determined and committed team so I am hopeful they will succeed and make a big impact on the lives of the people of Kisumu.

CADIF Kenya

This update is only two days old, so not bad by our standards! CADIF is a fantastic project and I hope we will be able to form strong links with them. Please read on:

Wednesday 1st July

Before heading to Kenya I connected with CADIF Kenya a community capacity building project based here in Kisumu. We spent today with them and although the situation within which they operate is desperately difficult, what CADIF (Community Aid Development Fund International) are doing is truly inspirational. I’ve been sat here for 1 hour trying to write about what we saw, learned and heard today. It is incredibly difficult to do it justice. Instead I will hold back until I have worked through the audio and video footage, written materials and photos we gathered today. We will make a short film about it and strengthen our links online and hopefully in person. For those of you aware of the project we are involved in in Bangladesh (Curry With Love/ HRA Foundation) I can tell you that we now have a link with a similar project here. CADIF are helping to rebuild a community on the margins of Kisumu and people who are truly on the margins of life. The community they work with is a slum on the very edge of Lake Victoria, in fact when floods come it is in the lake. Nylenda They are not doing it solely by raising money to provide short term aid; they are working WITH the community to create long lasting change by training people. They close the gap between education and the knowledge and practical skills needed to run businesses and this helps people to work their way out of one of the worst slums, Nylenda, in Africa. They train people in urban agriculture and agri-business. We were shown a training centre they had built with mud, straw and timber in which they train people how to recycle rice straw to grow mushrooms. They spread awareness of safe sex to help bring down the prevalence of HIV in Nylenda (24% of people there have HIV, much of it as a result of prostitution). They go far beyond simply promoting abstinence and the use of condoms, one of their volunteers, John, is trained in psychotherapy, he helps women who have contracted the HIV virus to deal with it psychologically. At their centre a few hundred metres from Nylenda they provide ICT training and simple business planning advice to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs while crucially helping them to gain the practical skills and knowledge needed to start and run their own business.

The last two hours of our time with CADIF were spent at The Oasis of Hope Secondary School. The Oasis was set up by a friend of Steven Otieno (Founder of CADIF) who wanted to help orphaned children to get an education, CADIF was instrumental in making it happen. The school is situated on a flood plain right next to the main sewerage pipe serving Kisumu. When the rains eventually come the school is under 2 or 3 metres of dirty water, the land there was very cheap to buy. The Oasis has 250 pupils some of whom walk 15km a day to attend. Because there is so much to learn pupils are expected to arrive at 7am and do not return home until 5.30pm. The school has no electricity, no running water and no sewerage system. Classes of over 50 pupils are housed in corrugated iron buildings with no glass windows, a mud floor and a teacher armed with only a piece of chalk and a blackboard. For the children who can afford it lunch is cooked on site and cost 10 Kenyan Shillings. 10 Kenyan shillings is equal to about 9 British pence. Many of the children cannot afford this, they therefore go the whole day without eating hoping that whoever they go home to (remember they have no parents) will have something for them to eat in the evening. Steven told me that many do not even have breakfast. The situation becomes even worse when Kisumu suffers a dry period. When it is dry the supply of food drops meaning the price of it rises, this is when hunger becomes a huge problem. Kenya as a whole is suffering longer and more intense dry periods as a result of global changes to the climate.

I’ve now been sat here for one and a half hours and I need to get some sleep. There is so much more to tell about CADIF and I promise to expand on this as our link grows. Lastly I want to make the point that CADIF has only been running for 3 years, it has achieved an incredible amount on funds that have been raised by its volunteer staff through their own hard work. It has struggled to raise money from government and large corporate sources due to its small scale, we plan to help it to raise money and hopefully to raise money for it. I left 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £8) of my own money with the director of the school, it will buy 100 lunches, it is not enough and I wish I could give more. The more money CADIF can raise the better it will do, we are aiming to provide opportunities for volunteers from across our network to volunteer their skills to CADIF to help it grow. Global Footsteps can make this happen and volunteers will be able to donate not only their time and skills, but hopefully also some money.