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Transcript of Ndu Okoh's story on HIV/AIDS in Mombasa, Kenya

INTRO
HIV/AIDS knows no boundaries.
It affects every religion in Kenya - whether you’re Muslim, Christian, Hindu..
To most Kenyans, religion is everything.
It guides the lives of the country’s people.
Today we start a series examining how each of the three main religions in Kenya copes with HIV/AIDS.
How does religion influence our views about this epidemic?
We begin by focusing on ISLAM.

Narrator:
Mombasa is a favorite holiday destination.
It’s a bustling town of narrow roads and winding streets.
Filled with shoppers bargaining with vendors selling local arts crafts.

Old Town is a great place to learn about Mombasa.
It was once the location of the city's old government offices and buildings.
They’ve since been moved.

Another resident has arrived in the city- HIV/AIDS.
The disease has moved in like the cars that whip through the tiny avenues.
It drives right alongside herds of goats that still roam the area.

Most people in Mombasa are Muslims.
Islam can be a strict religion.
It doesn’t tolerate sex outside of marriage.
Sometimes, you can be stoned to death for it.

Some Muslims find it hard to talk about HIV.
It has a lot to do with sex.
Often extra-marital sex.

Eric Mwathe:
I am Eric Mwathe.
What do you do here? I am a clinician.
Here at... What’s the name of this hospital? Makadara Clinic.
Okay, now, with our Muslim brothers, sometimes, it’s difficult to talk about AIDS. Very much.
How do you go about this? We involved the imams in the mosque so that they can tell these fellow Muslims in the mosque. Once they come here, we tell them, in most cases, they don’t like, they say it is against their faith. And they cannot use things like condoms.

Narrator:
Mombasa’s men and women are reserved and cautious.
There are many things to be afraid of.
Their city’s reputation as a place of terrorists has silenced them.
It has killed their desire to talk to outsiders.
HIV is the last thing they want to talk about.

Eric Mwathe’s clinic gets little support from bigger hospitals.
The one bedroomed clinic is far from large health centres.
But Old Town has many people with HIV in need of help.

Eric Mwathe:
No one has helped us especially within the Muslim community. But with the Christians, we are happy that there are some NGOs especially from America and Britain who have been supporting us. We get one or two AIDS patients per day, irrespective of their religion, whether it’s a Muslim or a Christian…we can get one Muslim, one Christian, or both Muslim, or both Christians.

Narrator:
Mombasa has many tourists.
They come to see the natural beauty that the coast offers.

Many women at the coast offer tourists something in return for their foreign currency …
their bodies.
It’s not the best job in the world.
But they need food to eat.

Many sex workers are Muslim.
They dare not tell their families about their jobs.
Often, their clients are married men from Mombasa.

Commercial sex workers have heard of AIDS too.
Many have been trained to use condoms to protect themselves and their customers against HIV.
When men refuse to use condoms, sex workers use their own condoms.

Not many sex workers go for HIV tests.
They say they’re too scared.

Malindi is a small town on the outskirts of Mombasa.
Most people living here are Muslim too.
Like in Mombasa, they hardly ever talk about AIDS.
But one person is trying to make a difference.
Ahmed Aboud has started an AIDS project, called Star of Hope.
He’s realized that HIV-positive Muslims need someone to talk to.

Ahmed Aboud:
Since it’s the, the scourge has been so high in Malindi, and eh, many, maybe there was also that say that Muslims were not active in participating in the action against HIV program. So that was one, the main reason that we unite together so that the six organizations can be able to do a, unify our programs together so that we are fighting in the HIV scourge. 01:29, and eh, on that, there are six organizations, that are, which is Tawfiq Muslim youth which is totally basing itself with activities, on health activities so that we totally considered ourself on home-based care program on HIV, to people living with HIV at homes.

Narrator:
All the Star of Hope’s community health workers are Muslim.
Ahmed believes the Muslim community needs to be educated, from all sides.

Ahmed Aboud:
The imams in the mosque they took activity higher in the mosque so that they could campaign in the mosque, issue on...abstention, of the scourge. And then we have also eh, we have the Hadib Musli al Islam, which has an integrated system of education, which combines the secular and religious organization and also joined together with Tohid, and also Malindi Islamic Center for Orphans. 02:41. Malindi Islamic Center for Orphans also they concentrate on the activity of the orphans, especially those…orphans who have been left behind by HIV patients, which passed away. 02:53 So this is the main purpose and from last year, four of our organization got funded by NACC and eh, we did, we were still able, we were still able to continue we are still continuing with that program that which ends up on December this year.

Narrator:
Star of Hope treats HIV-positive Muslims in their own hospital, called Tawfiq.
But Tawfiq can’t admit everyone.
They haven’t got enough money.

Ahmed Aboud:
We have trained 108 community health workers, yet the community health worker they are doing a lot of good job in the village and the area where they come, and when they see a cases that are serious to be referred to hospital, Tawfiq is not able to support them because financially we are not able to take care 09:08 of the patients, every patients who have HIV positive, to be brought in our hospital, and give medicine. So, sometime, we took, we only choose the most serious cases and we leave many of them.

Narrator:
In Malindi, HIV is so stigmatized that many families won’t bury someone known to have died of AIDS.

Ahmed Aboud:
We have seen patients that have left behind, they are not taken care. In fact there is case, that we buried a patient in our own hospital who died in our hospital, but brought here by neighbors, she was just neglected in her house, nobody was taking care, and then we had to come in and take the patient back to our hospital, and take care of the, feed her, everything, and after four days, she died, and then nobody came to claim the body, and we had to bury him.

Narrator:
Many Muslims refuse to use condoms.
Ahmed says it’s against their religion.

Ahmed Aboud:
Well it is a problem because them, they believe that, as you believe that the Catholics and the Muslims sometimes, they agree on each other on one basic that if we campaign for condoms, especially when we send the condoms to schools, is like we encourage the illegal things to be done, so instead of doing the right things. So, well on this, we take it as the religious side and we have a basic that we want to encourage people to get to the true love. Cause there is that say, that there is no…a true love can always wait, there’s no hurry in that. A real true love, if you’re really in love with someone, then it can wait. You don’t have to rush things up. So by putting up the condom between that means you are rushing things, and that’s what we are talking about, fearing about God.

Narrator:
Mombasa’s young people have the highest rates of HIV infections.
They die silent deaths.

Ahmed Aboud:
From 15 to 25 is the number that we have seen death, for example in our hospital here. 12:00 that is the biggest number that we have seen around, that means the real youth, that’s the potential youth that we are looking at so they are the biggest one who are suffering. We have cases that a youth, these are the ages the youth are worried. Wherever they hear about they are positive, they get scared and maybe they are losing hope and I mean they even can commit suicide easily, rather than the aged ones, who at least who have patience, they have long staying of life, so they know about these problems, so at least hey can handle themselves.

Narrator:
This beautiful coastal area has so many secrets, hidden under the robes of religion.
AIDS highlights many of them.
People like Ahmed have tried to break some of these cords to save lives.
But he needs help.
Ndu Okoh for Family Radio in Mombasa.

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