Home visits have been part of the team’s our daily routine. Dar and I went on home visits during the week. This was an eye opening experience for me- I saw the real need in Kipkaren and how the people of this village live. Home visits are led by Henry of the Living Room, who is trained in community health. Dar and I went to 6 different homes. We visited women who had been infected by HIV, most likely by their husbands. Some of their children were also infected. They were all receiving treatment from AMPATH, an organization which focuses on testing for HIV and providing medication for it. The Living Room has an alliance with AMPATH, in which Living Room Staff monitors about 80 AMPATH patients. The purpose of the visit is to ensure the patients are taking their HIV medication and to see how they are feeling or if they have developed any symptoms. As Henry explained, despite the patients taking medication their health can worsen any minute.
One of the more memorable visits was to Rose- Rose was actually a patient of Living Room. Rose is a mother of 3 (2 adult and 1 child) and she is now a mother to 3 more children, she took her brother’s children in after he got killed in a tribal conflict last year. She was taking care of her beautiful grand-daughter of 18 months (the mom was working ). Rose’s husband became very sick (most likely of AIDS) and passed away. She then had the responsibility of caring for the family herself. Rose then became very sick - she had contracted the virus. She was to the point were she was bed-ridden in her mud-hut. She was found in her hut weighing 60 pounds. Since she could not move herself, she was carried to the road and then driven to the Living Room; there she was taken care of, and given medication, for among other things, HIV. After eight weeks in the Living Room, she regained her strength, normal weight and was even helping the staff in their daily duties. She was so grateful and so happy to see us- she sent greeting to the Living Room and their staff by name. She wanted us to share her story so that others would see the great work that the Living Room is doing in her community. Without Living Room she would be dead- and 4 children would be orphaned.
What did her hut look like? The hut was about 400 square feet and it was divided into 4 rooms, all with bare walls and 1 small window in each. No electricity or running water. 1 room was the living room and it consisted of a small table and 4 chairs. The other room was the kitchen, where one of its corners consisted of fire-wood that had been burning earlier; the smoke and smell from the firewood invaded the entire hut. The rest of the space was divided into 2 bedrooms, with mats on the floor and a clothes line running across each room which was the makeshift closet. That was it.
The visit helped me understand why there are so many orphans in this community- the HIV pandemic has had a deep wound in this community. Living Room is helping with these wounds.