Kenya: How persistent are you?

Dorcas Atieno Ocharo (left) and Heneria Awino Odero after ten years of support together [CAFOD]

“I weighed just 35kg”

How old do you think a person would have to be to weigh 35kg (5.5 stone) and be healthy?

35kg is the average weight of a nine-year old child.

Dorcas was already the mother of six, and 36 years old when she weighed 35kg.

Now, thanks to medicine and counselling, she weighs 62kg. “I feel so good,” Dorcas says, smiling broadly.

"You’re so stubborn". It’s not usually how you’d like to be described by a friend. But for Dorcas, Heneria’s perseverance saved her life.

After the death of her husband, Dorcas was sick on and off. She explains: “When people came to me I refused to talk to them. I feared death. I feared leaving my kids.”

Heneria had just started work as a health volunteer for our local partner the St. Francis Community, and she was determined not to give up on Dorcas – her first case.

Persistence pays off

Dorcas says: “Heneria was persistent! She visited despite me refusing. Slowly I started to tell her how I was feeling. Finally I got tested. In a way I knew, because when I heard about the signs of HIV, it sounded like me.

“Back then there were no drugs. By the time I got medicine, I weighed just 35kg. Now my weight has doubled and I feel so good. I live positively, I can tell anyone my HIV status and I have no fear.

“Sometimes my children remember how I was about to die in those days, and they touch me just to check I’m good.”

Now Dorcas has followed in the footsteps of Heneria – thanks to your support, she has also trained to be a health volunteer and, for these two, 2009 is a special anniversary.

Heneria says, “This is my ten-year anniversary. I’m the longest-serving health volunteer in St. Paul’s parish. Dorcas is the most special to me because she was my very first client, and now she’s a health volunteer too - and much better than me!”

Dorcas is certain of a few things, “I will never leave the support groups. I’ll never stop taking the drugs.”

But most of all? “If I hadn’t met Heneria, I’d be dead by now.”

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