Panafrican News Agency - December 3, 2001

Her father died when she was only five and her mother, who had to fend for the family of five children from her vegetable-vending business, followed three years later.

For Atieno, life has been a bruising experience, having to fend for her siblings after the death of her parents, and living in a neighbourhood where shelter, bread and butter are in scarce supply.

She dropped out of school to sell vegetables, just like her mother, in order to put some food on the table for her brothers and sisters.

However, for the first time in her life, while the world was busy commemorating the World AIDS Day on 1 December, the good fortunes of Mother Nature visited uponn Atieno's household.

She was crowned Miss Mathare in a beauty contest organised by the Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) in partnership with the Catholic Church of Mathare and other NGOs dealing with mainly health- related issues and destitute children in the area.

As Atieno was being crowned the most beautiful girl in her area, Gitau Wanjohi, another teenager, was picked as the most handsome man in the area, clinching a title in a hotly contested parade.

Ten men and 10 women took part in the pageant which, according to MSF officer, Dr. Stephanie Lake, was meant to showcase the beauty which exists behind the deluding facades of slum life.

"This was a tough one and rather unique in the sense that we were not only concerned with the personal outlook and beauty but also how outgoing, influential, communicative and intelligent one is and how well one would be able to make contacts within his or her community.

"We were also looking for those people who would influence positive behaviour change in fellow youth," Lake told PANA.

According to him, the beauty show and the crowning of Miss Mathare and Mr Mathare are positive gestures meant to influence behavioral change in the area frequented by evils such as rape, robbery and gang culture.

"The winners of this contest will now act as role models in the village," she said.

"I have never dreamt of being considered for anything positive, let alone winning a beauty contest," an elated Atieno said, after winning a training scholarship for modelling at Nairobi's Vera Beauty College and shopping vouchers belonging to Uchumi Supermarkets - a leading Kenyan chain of superstore.

Wanjohi, too, won the same prizes.

With the prize, her life is bound to change for the better, not only for her siblings, but also among friends and neighbours who would now want to emulate her feat.

"She has been a good girl," adds Lake.

Since HIV/AIDS is such a mundane subject, says Lake, it would be wise to involve very light and fun-filled programmes as campaign strategies. Such programmes, she says, would be very effective as opposed to serious and straight talks that many people tend to find boring.

Lake says she hopes the Mathare Beauty Show, targeting the slums where the pandemic has been most devastating, to be held again next year during the World AIDS Day - as an anti-AIDS campaign strategy.
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