WEEP Program and Kibera, Kenya

The Story of the WEEP Project in Kibera, Kenya.

In Kenya the Kibera slum is located 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) from the Nairobi city centre and is reputed to now be the largest slum in Sub Saharan Africa.

The 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census reports Kibera's population as 170,070. Other estimates are one to two million people.

Unemployment in Kenya is estimated to be between 40% and 70%, Kenya’s population has grown from around 9 million in 1967 to 40 million in 2011

Conditions in Kibera are extremely poor, and most of its residents lack access to basic services, including electricity and running water.

Kibera is heavily polluted by human refuse, garbage, dust, and other wastes. The slum is contaminated with human and animal feces.

Small businesses eke out an existence.

Housing is very basic using corrugated iron, plastic sheets, sticks and mud .

Kibera has an estimated population density of 800 residents per acre. Kenya reports an HIV prevalence rate of eight percent in adult women and four percent in adult men.

Open drains, sewerage, garbage disposal and plastics are a huge problem.

Small children play on the “road”.

Cooking is usually out in the open along the road side .

Cooking fires are a danger to small children and a fire risk.

Medical facilities are limited and some that spring up are of dubious quality .

Under such adverse conditions children are usually clean and well dressed .

Women face considerably higher risk of HIV infection than men, and also experience a shorter life expectancy due to HIV/AIDS.

In the depths of Kibera Slum the Weep Centre is helping the people of Africa to survive the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

As an orphan prevention initiative, WEEP enables women with HIV/AIDS. The project saves the lives of mothers suffering from advanced stages of AIDS, therefore, their children are spared from becoming orphans. HEART is a registered TRUST in Kenya and has a fully qualified board of Kenyan Directors who work with the American counterpart of HEART a 501 C-3 organization comprised of American health professionals and concerned business leaders.

Gladys is the WEEP Center Coordinator. Gladys is the Center Coordinator Gladys is the Center Coordinator Gladys is the Center Coordinator

The WEEP Center is located in the heart of Kibera where it is more accessible to those HIV women that need it.

Amenities are basic

WEEP identifies mothers who have been widowed or abandoned when their husbands learned of their HIV status.

The WEEP project started in 2005 with five ladies. It now has 5 locations. Others have graduated started their own businesses or found employment outside the center after becoming well, healthy and trained.

WEEP commits to providing medical care, nutrition, vitamins, rent assistance and access to ARV drugs; it also assures that their children have a school uniform and necessary resources to attend school .

Once physically stable, the mother is taught a trade and provided a job at a WEEP center.

Opportunities For You To Help $900 supports a woman and her children for 18 months while she gets treatment … and gets prepared for starting her own business. $10 will purchase a malaria prevention net (at the current rate of exchange). $30 will buy a uniform for an orphaned child – the WEEP ladies make the uniforms and sustain their families by selling the uniforms. $6,000 will help open a new center.

For further information visit: http://www.africaheart.com

Photography by:

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WEEP Program and Kibera, Kenya

by aexdesign on Apr 07, 2011

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WEEP Program and Kibera, Kenya — Presentation Transcript