Staying at Living Positive

Living Positive Kenya is the organization that my team and I worked with for the first two weeks of our stay.  Living Positive (LP) is an incredible NGO.  Its main goal is to improve the psychological and emotional health of HIV+ women in the Ngong Hill Slums and help bring them out of poverty by teaching them skills like tailoring, bead work and candle making so that they can generate some income for themselves and their children.  I saw first hand how crucial a role LP and the support network there is in improving the lives of the women.  From the laughter and kindness they displayed to us from the second they met us you would never have guessed the horrific struggles these women have so strongly endured.  Its truly the most inspiring place I have ever visited.

Before going too far I must introduce Mary Wanderi, the founder of Living Positive.  As a sociatl worker in the Ngong Slums, Mary (but who everyone fondly refers to as Mum) quickly realized that if the mothers could be saved before wasting away from HIV they would still be able take care of their children, a job that no one does better than a mother herself.   What started as just a soup kitchen of sorts to help the women take their medication has turned into a internationally recognized organization that receives funding from both the Steven Lewis Foundation and HEART.  Mum is seriously one of the most loving, smart and inspirational women and her laugh is so contagious!

The room at LP where the women do their tailoring.

    A look at a road leading to the Ngong Slum   

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  Each day we visited the home of each of the 13 women involved in the 18 month long Women Economic Empowerment Program (WEEP) to hear their life stories.  Here we are outside of Alice's home that she shares with her incredible husband Charles, their son David and Alice's two other daughters. 

This is Mum and Fridah on Fridah's new bed in her new home.  The flooding and mud was terrible where she was previously living in the slum and it was going to make it impossible for her to get well.  We were so happy to have found a place out of the slum for her and her two sons Collins and Franklin but it was devastating to discover that she had literally nothing to move with her.  My team and I purchased her a bed so that she would be off of the floor and I hear there is a new bed on the way for her two sons.  Fridah spoke good English and was able to tell us her life story with just a bit of help from Mum to translate.  Her story was difficult to hear but her smile and positivity brought a smile to your face regardless.