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An update from Gary Selnow, Ph.D.
I just returned from a site visit to the Community Health Information Centers in Kenya. These facilities are continuing their remarkable work getting out the HIV/AIDS message and providing other medical information to local communities.
Any outsider who visits these places leaves with torn emotions—deep sadness for the conditions that have plunged this place into the depths of the HIV/AIDS morass, soaring hope that continued information and education will reverse the situation. Just as war creates heroes, this plague is creating local champions whose optimism, outlook and inspiration are helping so many people make it through these awful times. It's always motivating for me to meet and talk with these folks on my visits. In the months ahead we'll profile several of them on our Website.
Another inspiring story comes from Kiambu, a Center that Firelight Foundation has generously supported. Pauline, WiRED's manager in Kenya, and I visited with the Kiambu kids for a few hours and observed an HIV/AIDS prevention class they held for local children. They have come a long way since we first met them in Mombasa in the spring of 2001. Not only have they become excellent computer operators and teachers, but they have developed a sense of pride and hope for their own futures. Their work at the Center has given them a much-deserved status in the community. Each month, they reach hundreds of people with the prevention message, and they recognize that they are likely responsible for saving the lives of many people in their own community. What a transformation for them.
The kids flooded me with ideas for new projects, among them a monthly newsletter for teens and twenty-somethings, an outreach program and exhibitions at community events. I'm considering several of these and will do what I can to help them along.
Pauline and I took all ten of these kids to lunch at a small nearby restaurant. I asked Susan, one of the group leaders, how often she and the others eat there and she said with surprise, "Eat here? We can't, it's much too expensive." I told them to order anything and everything, and they didn't hold back. I'd never seen kids eat so much. The bill for the ten kids and Pauline and me came to the equivalent of $17. Imagine that.
In addition to the pleasure of reporting the progress in Kiambu and the continuing success of the Centers across Kenya, I have the good fortune of informing you that we have completed arrangements for a new, full-size training Center at the University of Nairobi's School of Public Health.
At present, students at this school—the largest source of medical doctors in Kenya—have no computers with which to pursue their studies or conduct their research. In December, WiRED will install a 12-workstation, Educational Health Information Center for the express purpose of getting the latest information into the hands of the medical professionals who soon will become the cornerstone of the country's health care system. We will supply our medical e-library and get the computers on-line so the students and faculty can join other teaching facilities around the world in accessing the most current medical information.
We also have made provisions to link the medical school with the WiRED field Centers in an outreach program that will extend the expertise in Nairobi to cities and towns throughout the country. Our firm belief that information is a powerful tool against the spread of HIV/AIDS will be tested at a new level with this program. If we tune these activities properly, I think we can significantly enhance the country's health care delivery network.
The pictures shown here show some of the participants in the Kiambu program. It is very rewarding to see the older orphans teaching computer skills to the younger orphans and to sense the gratitude they have for the opportunities offered by the Centers. I hope all friends of WiRED who have contributed to the support of the Centers appreciate the importance of their contribution to these young people and to campaign against the devastation of HIV/AIDS.
I will return to Kenya in December to make plans for the expanded activities in 2003. As the progress continues, I will periodically file updates on the web site to keep all of you informed.
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