The Faces of HIV/AIDS in East Africa

On a chilly Sunday morning in Kenya at an Anglican church I met Lucy and her young son. Lucy, a very precious twenty-four year old woman, shared her story over hot Chai while her son played with the children coming from Sunday school classes. She explained that she had a difficult childhood. Her family consisted of Lucy and her mother, which is a relatively small family by Kenyan standards. They were very poor and Lucy had to contribute to their household income by starting work at a bar at an early age. Lucy later sought refuge in her current church. She volunteered at the church, helping with the cleaning. In response to her faithfulness the church hired Lucy. While on staff at the church, Lucy became very ill. One of the female leaders recognized Lucy’s symptoms and took her for HIV/AIDS testing. They soon found out that Lucy was HIV positive.

Lucy praised her church community’s efforts of supporting her through her illness with financial resources, companionship during visits to clinics and hospitals, acceptance in the community, and for securing anti-retroviral medication. I asked Lucy if there was anything else that her church community could do to support her further. In tears Lucy shared that, “her greatest concern was for the welfare of her children should she become unable to care for them.” As I received her words, I was reminded of the Isaiah 1:17 exhortation to, “Learn to do good; Seek justice; Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.” Lucy’s story provided a context for this powerful commission to Israel and I questioned how the Church today was “defending the fatherless” and “learning to do good” for the millions of children suffering as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I hope you will also be challenged with the same questions.

New Faces of HIV/AIDS

Esperanzaⁱ, a thirty-three year old Mexican American women from Los Angeles that I recently interviewed, like every mother is concerned about the future of her two children. She is especially anxious because she is one of 38.6 million people currently living with HIV worldwide and one of a million Americans living with HIV (Oprah Show 2006). Esperanza often cries out to God pleading, “I can’t leave now, please God don’t take me now, just wait to they [her children] turn eighteen both of them”. Latina and African American women like Esperanza represent a growing percentage of the HIV+ population in the United States. For example, in the Los Angeles county, “thirty-eight percent of women infected by AIDS are African American” (AIDS Partnership California n.d.). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that “AIDS is the number one killer for African-American women ages 25 to 34” (Oprah Show 2006). In spite of her circumstances and the dismaying HIV/AIDS statistics, Esperanza has hope for her future and the future of her children. That hope comes from her trust in God. Rapidly rising HIV/AIDS infection rates among Latina and African American women in Los Angeles and globally presents both a dire problem and opportunity for the church to engage in ministry among this population.

ⁱ Esperanza’s name was changed to protect her identity.