Community members brought Gladys to Rose's attention in the early 2000s. She was bedridden, dying, the relatives were helping themselves to her few personal belongings, and she'd sold nearly everything else so the local "healer" would get rid of the curse that bewitched her. Two small children.
HIV+, of course.
Rose took her in, found a place for her to sleep, fed her nutritious food until she was a bit stronger. Got her on ARVs. This was nearly 10 years ago, I think. She is still the mother of two children, WHO ARE NOT ORPHANS! You can't imagine how critical that is. Anything that keeps mothers (or fathers) alive to parent their children, rather than sending them off to extended family or orphanages, is so much better for the kids and society. Orphans are the most vulnerable people in Kenya.
A small amount of seed money for a shop, and Gladys started working in the trading center at Kambi ya Mwanza, where you see her pictured. Vumilia helps a bit paying some of the school fees for her kids. She's put enough aside to buy a small piece of land, and has probably already moved from the home you see photos of below to her new place. She'll be able to grow some of her own vegetables for sale, and keep more chickens, so she's not just a middleman at the market.
Gladys's stand is just to the left in the photo, in front of the posho mill (maize mill).
Maize (drying) and beans for sale.
Rose always purchases from Gladys when she has the needed supplies. This is maize for the girls' home.
Gladys took me to see her home, which she has moved out of by now. It's just behind the red building behind her shop. We go down a narrow corridor.
We turn onto another corridor.
Here we are inside her home. Very crowded. Her bed is behind the Thomas the Tank Engine sheet on the left. Not sure if her kids sleep with her back there or not - the room is about 8 feet wide. That's the house. Cook outside, use the outside latrine, eat under the overhang.
A neighbor boy on her front porch.
Gladys's son is cooking lunch for them. Boiled corn meal.
This is a traditional three-stone fire. You can imagine the inefficiency. And the labor costs gathering wood for several fires a day, even for a small family. And the deforestation. I may have mentioned that before.
Glady's home and neighbor.
Me and Gladys. We've known each other since 2007.
With a customer.
I can't seem to listen to it right now, but I think this is the interview, back in 2008, when Rose and I talked about Gladys. http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/best-global-activism-teaching-sex-ed-rural-kenya
The right program, spending its money wisely, no matter how small, changes lives unimaginably! Go Rose and Vumilia!!
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