Community Profile
Rongai is a slum community in Naiorbi with a high prevalence of HIV infection. CARE for AIDS began operating a center in the Rongai community in partnership with Apostolic Faith Church in February of 2016.
Center staff
Health Counselor: Faith
Faith serves as the Health Counselor at the CARE for AIDS center in Rongai. She is passionate about helping clients learn how to manage their health and nutrition so they can live long, healthy lives!
Spiritual Counselor: Peter Maina
Peter has been employed with CFA since 2016. He and his wife Alice have two children. He grew up in central Kenya (Nyeri) with four brothers and five sisters. When asked why he works with CFA, Peter said, “I knew my calling and my purpose is to transform and equip people (client) for life. I want to give them hope and walk with them in their life.”
Center History
YEAR GRADUATES FAITH-DECISIONS ORPHANS PREVENTED
2016-2017 68 27 87
2017-2018 80 22 226
2018-2019 80 15 187
2019-2020* 77 25 277
2020-2021 TBD TBD TBD
*The cohort in the 2019-2020 class was impacted by delays in the CARE for AIDS program caused by COVID-19 lockdowns and health precautions. To learn more about how we responded to the pandemic, visit this page.
client profiles
Lilian, 2021 Client
Lilian is 36 years old, married, and has 5 children. One of her children is HIV positive. Her husband is negative, which has caused conflict for them as a couple.
Lilian learned her status in July 2019 when she was pregnant with her twins. She was in denial because her husband's status was negative while hers is HIV positive. She later gave birth to the twins and one of them was HIV positive and the other HIV negative. She was so stressed because she thought that her daughter was going to die because of her status.
Lilian joined our program when she was very weak physically and psychologically. After the program launch, she started feeling unwell. She was in and out of the hospital. Her husband supports her even though he is not financially stable. Lilian was having back pain and couldn't move out of bed or do activities of daily living. She also became paralyzed from the hips to the legs on one side.
We supported Lilian by paying for treatment and buying medications. Through home visits and telecounseling, Lilian is able to walk again. Although not fully recovered, she is better than before and is able to come to the center for several activities.
She is very grateful for meeting the CARE for AIDS family and the support she gets from our center. She has also made new friends and realized that she is not alone. Currently, she is very active in the center, especially during group therapies. She joined our program when she was a Muslim and now she is a Christian. Lilian shared that she wants God to bless the CFA family for what they have done to her so that they may reach many other people like her.
Marklord, 2020 Graduate
Marklord moved to Nairobi from Western Kenya in search of opportunity. He had just finished high school, and he was hopeful about his future in Kenya's capital city. Around the time he moved to Nairobi, the local government was running an HIV-testing campaign. Marklord decided to be tested, and to his horror, he tested positive. Although Marklord was immediately put on ARV medication, he had no community to support him through his health journey. At the time, HIV was widely seen as a death sentence, and Marklord suffered from fear and stigma.
In 2018, more than 10 years after he first tested positive, Marklord's health was failing- he was very thin and had grown too weak to work. Thankfully, he joined the CARE for AIDS program in Rongai, Nairobi, and his life changed completely.
He loved the new community he found at the center, and he committed to learning all he could from the center staff. He showed such great leadership throughout the program that he was elected by his peers to lead a savings group, and his group was able to register with the government and open an account with a local bank. Marklord even received a scholarship through CARE for AIDS to be trained as a pastry chef. By the time he graduated from the Rongai Center in 2019, he was working as a chef at the center, preaching at Sunday services at the church, and was already recruiting new clients for the next class. Marklord is now a male champion at the Rongai Center. His life has been forever changed by the CARE for AIDS program, and he is excited to share the opportunity with others for years to come.
Rongai 2019 Center Update
Hear from Regional Coordinator, Thomas, about the progress of the Rongai center and other centers in the Nairobi West Region.
Margaret, 2017 Rongai Graduate
Margaret joined the CARE for AIDS program at Rongai in 2017. She is the primary caretaker for her seven young grandchildren, and before the program she was too weak to work so they often went without school fees. At a seminar six months into the program, Margaret gave her testimony to her classmates. She spoke of how her life has changed because of the program and how she is now healthy enough to care for her whole family. Before she sat back down, she said, “AIDS, I have it”. The group laughed, because, of course, they’re all living with HIV/AIDS. But then she said, “I’ve never stood in front of a group and disclosed my status.” The class applauded, celebrating the confidence she’s gained through CARE for AIDS and the community she has found.
