Sakina’s Story
Yesterday’s papers had the latest HIV/AIDS statistics for Kenya. They’ve risen from just under 6% to 7.8% for those between 15 - 64 years. In Western Kenya the rate stands at 15%.
Achego Home is in a fertile sugar cane growing region of Western Kenya. While there we visited Sakina Otieno. She’s been widowed for 6 years and now lives with her 4 children aged 11, 8, 6 and 1 years in a 2 room mud hut on her mother-in-laws farm (shamba). The family survives on the support she receives from the Triple F program and the bit of maize she plants.
Life was not always like this for Sakina. Her husband was a bookkeeper and she was a self employed seamstress in an urban centre, They rented a house and had a car. He husband died just as her son was born. Both he and Sakina were diagnosed as HIV+. As her health declined so did her ability to work. She lost most of her possessions and was forced to move to the shamba.
She and her six year old are now on ARVs and her youngest was born HIV positive. Her goal is to stay alive and provide for her children. She removed the dust cover from her sewing machine and tells of her interest in growing some sugar cane so she can get some capital to buy fabric to make into clothes to sell. But she tells us, she is weak because of her illness so what she really needs is Ks 5,000 so that she can hire a tractor to plow an acre in which to plant cane. She’s not alone; there are many women who are too old or too weak to plow their fields. And so their children and grandchildren often go hungry.