Kenya

Hosted by the World YWCA, the International Women’s Summit on Women’s Leadership on HIV, brings together over 1500 people, including global leaders, high level policy makers, celebrities, community health workers and AIDS activists from 4 to 7 July to develop strategies, skills and partnerships in response to the impact of AIDS on women and girls.

This first ever International Summit of its kind addresses the impact of AIDS on women and girls, explores issues such as poverty, violence against women, children’s rights and access to decision-making and resources.

The event is organized by the World YWCA and co-convened with the International Community of Women Living with HIV, and has the support of the UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The summit aims at:

• highlighting the difference women’s leadership is making on AIDS issues
• building the capacity of individuals and organizations to develop sustainable programmes and evidence based solutions
• mobilizing women around the world to respond to AIDS and related issues
• developing strategic partnerships to broaden the impact of AIDS responses

With HIV-related tuberculosis (TB) cases increasing in many parts of Africa, Dr Chakaya Muhwa highlighted the work of the Kenyan government to establish clear policy guidelines and effective organizational structures. These have come at a time when TB is emerging as a serious public health problem in Kenya, compounded by the appearance of drug-resistant TB strains that are making the disease that much more difficult and expensive to treat.

In his presentation, “TB/HIV: Integration of Services and Stopping the Newest Epidemic” Dr Chakaya said TB and HIV programmes should work together because the link between the two diseases was clear. He emphasised the importance of treating all illnesses associated with HIV and the need to improve health care systems. He also flagged the need to base human resource needs on staffing norms, not on workload assessment. He also stressed the need to recognise best practice in adequately controlling HIV and TB infections. “Inadequate infection control practices encourage the transmission of HIV and TB,” he said. TB control programmes needed to be strengthened and better coordinated with HIV programmes.

How one woman’s crusade is making a difference in Kenya

When rural girls and young women move to Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, in search of a better life, not all of them find it. Faced with limited educational training and the difficulties of earning a living—some end up as sex workers and at risk for HIV.

Professor Elizabeth Ngugi, a nurse by training, has been looking out for these young women since 1992 when she founded the Kenya Voluntary Women Rehabilitation Centre (KVOWRC). The center reaches out to sex workers in the slums of Nairobi who are looking for a better life. 

The center offers skills training and has a micro finance programme. Graduates of KVOWRC are now running small business. Professor Ngugi says by providing these services she and her team are helping young women re-build their self-esteem and make positive changes in their lives. “Every human being has a right to exploit their potential to the full.  The world has the obligation to give vulnerable women and children a chance,” she says.

In the city where number of children aged between 10 and 18 involved in sex work is increasing at an alarming rate, KVOWRC also focuses on HIV education and prevention, peer counseling and home based care for those who need it.

For the younger girls, many of whom are teenage mothers, the centre also provides a home and pays for school fees so they can complete their education. The centre also offers vocational training programs in tailoring, dressmaking, weaving, and tie and dye hairdressing, which are boosting their income and empowering them to abandon risky behavior. Most of the girls who come to the centre choose not to go back to the streets.

For one graduate it took a hairdressing course and a hair dryer to turn her life around. “It was not easy for me to get a job because I had no experience” she says. “Thanks to the KVOWRC training, I opened a small beauty salon, and am now able to pay my rent and buy food and clothing for myself and my two children.”

Related links
KVOWRC website: www.kvowrc.or.ke

GENEVA, 20 April 2012—UNAIDS commends the High Court of Kenya for a ruling today that will safeguard access to affordable and quality life-saving generic medicines. The decision by the High Court found that the definition of “anti-counterfeit” within the 2008 Anti-Counterfeit Act was too broad.

“The Act is vague and could undermine access to affordable generic medicines since the Act had failed to clearly distinguish between counterfeit and generic medicines,” said High Court Judge Mumbi Ngugi in her ruling.

The High Court called on Kenya’s Parliament to review the Act and remove ambiguities that could result in arbitrary seizures of generic medicines under the pretext of fighting counterfeit drugs. The judgment also stated that intellectual property rights should not override the right to life and health.

“A vast majority of people in Kenya rely on quality generic drugs for their daily survival. Through this important ruling, the High Court of Kenya has upheld a fundamental element of the right to health,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. “This decision will set an important precedent for ensuring access to life-saving drugs around the world.”

At the end of 2011, about 1.6 million people in Kenya were living with HIV. An estimated 743 000 Kenyans are eligible for antiretroviral treatment, of whom 539 000 are currently receiving it. Kenya’s national HIV treatment programme relies heavily on access to generic antiretroviral medicines.

“We must have both generic drugs and strong anti-counterfeit laws,” said Mr Sidibé. “Generic drugs give more people access to life-saving treatment—while anti-counterfeit laws keep people safe.”

In low- and middle-income countries more than 80% of the antiretroviral drugs used by the 6.6 million people on HIV treatment come from generic manufacturers. Nearly 8 million additional people living with HIV were eligible for treatment at the end of 2010.