Speeches Shim
Last updated: January 21, 2021
USAID is proud and excited to announce that the work done by six of its implementing partners during the COVID-19 pandemic was recognized as PEPFAR Heroes. The award recipients were honored on December 2 during a virtual World AIDS Day celebration with the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter. The PEPFAR Hero Awards were given out by PEPFAR Kenya in recognition of people who, despite the pandemic, went above and beyond their call of duty to ensure that Kenyans living with HIV continued to receive antiretroviral therapy. Antiretroviral therapy is essential for people living with HIV to live longer, healthier lives, and maintain virologic suppression.
Lore, as he prefers to be called, was born HIV-positive. After his mother’s death, his older sister - ill of the same disease - raised him until she too died. She left him under the care of other siblings. Lore fell seriously ill at the age of 10 and tested positive for HIV. But his family was reluctant to inform him about his status, fearing the stigma he would be subjected to in school. After his schoolmates found his antiretroviral medication, they labeled him “the HIV boy.” “I almost quit school,” says Lore.
Today is International Day of the Girl Child during the year of the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Women in Beijing. A wise woman once told me that “show me the state of the adolescent girl in your country, and that will tell me what the state of your country really is.” I have found that to be true.
They call themselves the “Superstars” and are in their own little way helping Kenya tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The women’s group in the lakeshore county of Homa Bay is making soap as part of a chama (a type of small savings and loan group that is popular across Kenya). Each of the group’s members contributes money, which is used to buy soap-making ingredients. Once it is produced, each member receives an equal amount of soap to sell. The group meets every week to share out the proceeds, setting some of the funds aside to buy more reagents and provide loans to its members.
Ashley spent her teenage years living hand-to-mouth in Kenya's coastal region. Searching for a better life, her father moved the family to an informal settlement in Mombasa County. “Frequently we had no meals or basic necessities,” explained Ashley. “We lived a miserable life.” Due to lack of education, he took menial jobs. With most of his income spent on family needs, education for Ashley and her siblings was not possible.
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