THE CARING WORLD EXISTS IN A PLACE CALLED NYUMBANI. Reported by David Wecal

Before the DOGE cuts, before the pandemic, before Trump even, we spent three years off and on in Africa investigating the HIV/AIDS crisis for Johnson & Johnson. Our travels took us to Kenya. South Africa and Zimbabwe. We saw how complex the issue is from extreme poverty to gender violence to a population that got the short end of the stick because where they were born. One shining and inspiring example of success we found was Nyumbani. Nyumbani is a relatively self-sufficent village of now 800 children and adults impacted by AIDS that could be a model for how to address displaced populations and a future with less humanitarian aid. We’ve edited an article that was written a few years ago to give you a sense of this unique place.

The first impression isn’t what you expect it to be.

When you walk into a village of 1,000 children who have been abandoned by their parents, infected or otherwise had their lives turned completely upside down by HIV/AIDS; you expect to feel something profound, something sad perhaps, certainly something on a very powerful level.

Thomas will have none of that. He just wants to look at my iPhone. Actually he first wants me to take a photo of he and his buddies, so they can see themselves on my iPhone.
Kids are kids. That is the first lesson.

Sister Mary Owens, former Executive Director of Nyumbani:

They come in groups. It's not very often that one single child comes but you see that they are very insecure. They are afraid even, fear, they have nothing. Some of them have come just carrying whatever belongings they have just in their hands. They are just totally traumatized.

When they see that there's a roof over their heads, there's food to eat, there's clothes to wear, they can go to school without any worries, they just gradually become secure.

The world moves forward with Mercy, who is eight years old. Mercy lost her parents to AIDS. She lives in a small home in Nyumbani Village with her grandfather, her sister, a brother, and six other children. They’ve formed a family in every sense of the world and have renewed the African tradition of taking care of one another. Mercy loves to read. Her sister quietly teaches her while the boys prepare dinner, picking vegetables from the garden.

Sister Mary:

The way we envisioned the operation of the village was that what we would ask of the grandparents is that they're there for the children. Not just for their own biological grandchildren but also for the grandchildren of other families. They care for them, bond with them, love them, pass on the values of life and the traditions. We provide what is necessary for the household but we also challenge them to grow some vegetables and fruits because each family has about half an acre around their house.

The goal of the village is sustainability: making the community a viable operation but also helping the children build lives they can support. There is a clinic and a church, as well as a farm that raises livestock and vegetables. There is a primary school and a high school. Many graduates go onto college (40%). Many receive scholarships from programs supported by donors like Johnson & Johnson.

There is a polytechnical school where students learn a trade. The students make their own clothing, build their own furniture, learn how to weld, and are taught stonework and masonry.

Sister Mary:
You see that the children are very invested in education. The primary school education is our hope and our future, and that's a fact, because when they were at home while their parents were very sick and passing away, their education was very much interrupted. Some of them wouldn't have gone to school even. When they come into the Village and there's school, there's no worries about fees, no worry about uniform or stationery. "I just have to go to school and learn." Our hope. Our future.

Clean water is critical to everyday life in Africa. Safe water to drink and cook with is essential to Nyumbani Village. The homes and school buildings employ a rain capturing system that channels rain from the roofs to tanks that protect and store water for use throughout the year.

The children at Nyumbani are constantly asked to think of their lives beyond the village, beyond where they are today. What do you want to be when you grow up? The answers come back with as much imagination as you’d expect from children who have been given the freedom and opportunity to dream. Doctor, lawyer, pilot, teacher. These kids are making plans.

Reaching this place, this level of accomplishment, has been a long and twisting road. The idea of Nyumbani came from the necessity of the AIDS crisis in Africa and the vision of a priest from Providence, Rhode Island. Father D’Agostino and Sister Mary Owens were doing missionary work in an orphanage in Nairobi when HIV landed in Kenya like an atomic bomb. Parents were dying. Children were being abandoned at hospitals and schools. Violence was breaking out as people were fighting for food. Father and Sister started by creating a home that was basically a hospice.

There were no treatments for the disease so the goal was to care for the children as they died, giving them comfort and dignity as much as they could.

When the first AIDS treatments were discovered, Nyumbani was able to become a place where children could be helped. The collection of small buildings became a clinic and home to about 100 children. Today, the same amount of kids from toddlers to young adults live at the home located on the edge of Nairobi. Each child having their disease managed. The home also has a lab to do testing, which helps the facility and local community monitor patients.

Nyumbani had also created a network of clinics to help the thousands of children who live in the shadows of the slums of Nairobi. But costs and funding cuts forced the closure of those clinics this past year. Thousands of children have no place to turn now. Nyumbani home and the larger village outside of the city are at capacity.

When we spoke to the new leadership at Nyumbani (Sister Mary retired last year) we asked about the impact of the U.S. aid cuts which had just been made. The healthcare system of Kenya had not yet run out of meds for those battling AIDS, but many of the clinics had already closed. Nymbani was already seeing a few children brought in by parents who could no longer care for their child’s illness or their own. They were giving up their kids to Nyumbani so they might survive. The dark days were beginning again, everyone feared.