Charmain Kenya 2012: Day 3, Ngong Weep Center & home visits

So WEEP stands for Women Equality Empowerment Project and the HEART Organization started it for women who are HIV+. What happens: usually a friend has told the center about a specific woman's situation, they are so sick that someone has to visit them and evaluate their needs. At this level you are considered a PROPS(Project Rescue Orphan Prevention Service) woman. You are mentored by other women who bring you food and you begin on medication for your HIV+AIDS. Your children are schooled and fed, you are able to get the medication you need to fight your disease. Once you feel well enough to visit the center you are given your own sewing machine (considered phase 2). You learn to sew and eventually how to have a business for yourself.

Imagine having no husband, no family and maybe even no friend. You have a very severe case of the flu and it lasts for months on end. How can you care for your children in any way let alone buy food to feed them. You are so weak, all you can do is lie on your bed as the days pass. The landlord wants his rent. You don't have any $. Your children cry for food. There is none. Your house is a 8X10 space that you and your children live in. The walls are made of corrugated sheet metal or wood. Your floor is dirt. This is where you live and fight your demise. Hopeless and alone is all you feel daily. Who will care for your children when you pass. Daily thoughts they ponder, which turns into weeks, months and years.
Then one day you get a visitor and she brings you food! She talks with you, and takes time to pray for you and your family. For the first time you feel a spark of hope. "Just maybe I can heal or at least my children can eat."
Today we visited a center like this in the Ngong region. The women are so filled with joy to see you and there are many hugs and happy greetings. We were welcomed with singing as we got off of our bus. Such a beautiful experience listening to these women praising God. There truly is nothing like their music, so filled with passion for their Lord and acceptance of the grace He has given them. Gratitude. I ask how they can be so thankful "all the time"! Most of them had been so sick, rejected from society, family and friends. Hopeless and damaged upon repair. Unable to provide for their families.
We toured the center and enjoyed some worship time with these ladies. They told us their stories. So heartbreaking. So lonely and yet the women who are graduating this year (saturday) have made it through the 18 month program. They are healthy, they smile, laugh and sing. Their heads are raised higher, they are filled with joy and pride! They have learned to sew and a way to provide for their families. They have come so far. HOPE is in their hearts and their smiles.

sewing machines

her new sewing machine to practice on

Naomi loves her machine

Love the smiles of joy

patterns: they practice on paper before material

Our hands blessing theirs

Jane loves sewing, we saw her wear many of her own creations

From the center we took our bus into the Ngong slums. It dropped us off and we split into groups, carrying food and a bag filled with inspirational items that would remind the women how much God loves them.

Dorcas in her doorway

Dorcas was the first stop. She graduated last year and had bought her own home by selling the items she sewed and made. Her story: Her husband dies, 2 months following that two of her seven children also pass away (babies). She finds out she is HIV +. Her husbands family come and take all her belongings. She gets cancer, has surgery & fights that too. This is repeated 7 times. Because of that she uses a voice enhancer so people can hear her.

I was so moved by the immense perseverance this woman has. What a fighter! She was SO proud of her home. It actually had a linoleum floor. She was so thankful to God for all He had given her. SO MUCH gratitude!

Dorcas sharing her story with us

The next woman we visited was Frida. She had been in the first phase of the program but had been sick again, Tuberculosis. Her story: she had come from a very educated, affluent family, her husband left her after he found out she was HIV+ so she went to her family. (she has two boys). Her family didn't want to have anything to do with her and she became homeless. She was pretty sick and unable to work and provide for her family. We prayed and cried with her. So hard to imagine your family abandoning you and your children.
Frida's home was much worse than Dorcas' so it was interesting to compare the two. Seeing the beginning and the end of the program. Difficult to really explain all my emotions, the experience of being there is something you have to do yourself, to really get the full impact. I ask what is it God wants me to gain from this. I truly came away changed, definitely heart broken and grateful beyond measure.