Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Times Mirror Company, Los Angeles Times - Saturday, November 18, 1995, Home Edition PAGE: A-15 TYPE: Sidebar
John Balzar, Times Staff Writer
For Nakibuka, it seems, sex and love and money, Uganda's old ways and the dangerous ways of today, all collide in the dim lights of an after-hours bar. Her face is drawn, her nails are chipped, but her voice is firm.
"A journalist? May I tell you my story? Please?
"My mother died in 1992 of AIDS. My father is sick. Jimmy sells spare parts and is a motorbike mechanic. He is a very bad man. He is the father to Nicholas. I was 18 when I got in love with him, so I didn't know he was a bad womanizer. But all men are here. You think you will be special. But he has so many women, young and old. . . .
"When the time came, I told him I was pregnant. He blamed me. In the end, he denied it. Later, I got another boyfriend. He did not know I was pregnant. I found it difficult to be with him and not tell him. So I did. And he looked after me until Nicholas came. . . .
"I had to build my own life. I had no job, and friends helped me find work in a restaurant, where I go now in the days. I am a waitress.
"I have my baby. But time comes, I feel I would like to kill myself. . . . My friend tells me that someday I will be happy. I don't know. I want you to write that men should stop misusing girls. But you won't.
"So . . . a friend told me that this hotel was a place, that here were men who would give you money. Of course, they first use you. I said, how can I do that? She said, you will learn.
. . .
"My first time was difficult. But the man used a condom. It was sad, but I was looking for something. . . .
"At the restaurant, I am paid $15 a month. This man, he gave me $30. Was it bad? No, it was good. . . .
"This is a picture of me and Nicholas. See? When I come here, he is with my sister. I put aside milk, and when I come home, he takes the breast.
"I know this is risky. Mostly I think--when I die, where will I leave Nicholas?"
* * * *
Anne Owiti picks up the pieces.
A nurse and born-again Christian, she directs the Kibera Community Self Help Program in this dangerous slum of 500,000 outside Nairobi. She has three tiny classrooms for orphans, two counseling rooms, a medical office, a rabbit hutch and a dog that provides nighttime comfort for the little ones.
Eight inches away, across a masonry wall topped with broken glass, is the Nairobi Country Club.
"I founded this project in 1991. The women of this community need help. HIV/AIDS is my main aim, to work with single women here. But no way can you work just with women--their children come along automatically.
"So now, we have an orphanage too. . . .
"I pray to God every day to give me the strength to help my fellow women. We give them free treatment, those that need it. Most of our orphans come from patients who have passed on. This young woman, there, who you see. She is sick. She has four children. We have to help her find plans for her children when she dies. . . .
"Each week, in one way or another, 1,000 people get service here. The orphans who live here now are six girls and seven boys. In the days, we have school for 120 children, orphans or soon-to-be orphans. . . . There are 11 villages here. We serve seven, with a population of about 200,000. . . . I would guess that one out of four people in Kibera is infected with HIV.
"AIDS is not only a medical thing--it's a social problem. It's affecting the output of this country. . . . I think of this country, just as we try to build it up, the people with the skills and drive are dying. Every family is going to be touched.
"The experts of this country will soon die. And the country itself will . . .
"I'm thinking of it as the new slave trade. It is carrying our people away. It is tearing our people apart." GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Children who have been orphaned by AIDS--or have dying parents--get support at Kibera Community Self Help Program.
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