A mud house and history in the making for a woman living with HIV in Kenya

This post is written by Senior Fellow Nancy Cabelus, DNP, MSN, RN, an international forensic nurse consultant currently working with Physicians for Human Rights on a program addressing sexual violence in conflict zones in central and east Africa.

In recent weeks I reported from Kenya that I was invited to join a medical team sponsored by a Global Grant awarded to Rotary Club of Davis, California.  Our mission was to provide training to medical doctors, nurses and students on Abusive Head Trauma in infants.  One morning after lecturing in western Kenya at Kisii District Hospital, Rotarian and director of Africa HEART (Health Education Africa Resource Team), Vickie Winkler gave us a new assignment. She arranged for us to help local residents build a mud house for a Kenyan woman living with HIV.  In the making of this hut, history happened inside a village of Kisii, Kenya. 

A Kenyan woman, I will call Ann, is married with one daughter. When Ann was tested for HIV and found to be positive, Ann was “chased” from her husband’s home, meaning disposed of by her husband and the community. How Ann acquired HIV makes no difference. In many circumstances, women like Ann are infected with the virus by their spouse or they could be infected during childbirth.  Regardless, Ann was thrown out of the village without a job, financial means, an education, and a home for her and her young daughter. The stigma and shame placed upon African women like Ann is insurmountable and meanwhile, these women are also fighting with a life-threatening virus. Situations like Ann’s are not unusual in Africa.

Nurses role globally to keep social justice and human rights alive

Barbara Glickstein is the co-director of the Center for Health, Media & Policy and is reporting from Australia.

“Equity is an ethical principle; it also is consonant with and closely related to human rights principles”

Braveman and Gruskin 2003

It was early morning. Most felt out-of-whack as their confused body rhythms adjusted to the Australian time zone after hours in flight to Melbourne.

They streamed into the Melbourne Convention Center auditorium, chose their seats, exchanged smiles or words of introduction to those next to them from lands distances away from their home countries. There were close to 4000 nurses from over 130 countries in Melbourne to attend the International Congress of Nurses. The local Australian host nurses, who worked planning this Congress for years, greeted their guests with warm Aussie hospitality.

The energy in the room was palpable gearing up to hear the first keynote address by Michel D. Kazatchkine MD, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe, on the Congress’ theme “Equity and Access to Healthcare.”

Dr. Kazatchkine reported that the inequitable burden of infectious disease globally is concentrated in developing countries where 90% of infections, mainly HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, kill up to 4 million people a year.

The response to these inequities demands a redistribution of resources and an increase access to health and education. He said, “Health should no longer be expected as an outcome of development, but rather as a necessary priority investment for development and economic growth.”

He noted that as a result of social mobilization and political engagement access to health care is increasingly being accepted as a human right globally. Innovation in new forms of global governance created high level decision-making bodies where community members, government officials and corporate representatives each held an equal vote shaping policies.