Marsabit, Kenya

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The Ride:Well Tour is partnering with Blood:Water to raise funds to provide our friends in Marsabit, Kenya with clean drinking water, hygiene & sanitation education and latrines. People living with HIV/AIDS are provided with volunteer counseling & testing, community based health care and prevention education.

Marsabit, Kenya Stats

• 79% live in absolute poverty
• 44% have access to clean drinking water at some point during the year
• 77% do not have access to toilet facilities at all
• 7,000 people living with HIV/AIDS

The Issue Facing Marsabit

Marsabit district in Kenya’s northern desert is one of the most marginalized regions in Kenya. Over 158,000 nomadic pastoralists carve out an existence in an environment that leaves 79% living in absolute poverty and 65% without access to clean water. Here, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is rapidly gaining a foothold where poverty, urban migration, cultural beliefs, and sex trafficking have raised prevalence rates to 4.7%. Lack of education perpetuates stigma and continues to drive HIV infection rates, and inadequate health services have reached only 360 of the 7,000 individuals diagnosed with HIV in Marsabit. BWM is partnering to address these problems by building health care infrastructure, facilitating prevention programs and establishing home-based care groups.

Clean Water

Water provision, hygiene & sanitation education and latrine construction is planed for areas near schools, communities and springs.

Clean Blood (HIV/AIDS)

+ Voluntary Counseling & Testing Centers | Meeting the needs of over 7,000 people living with AIDS (PLWAs) will require building a health care infrastructure where almost none exists. Through our partners in Marsabit, BWM is funding the build out of a voluntary counseling and testing center (VCT) which will target 4,000 PLWAs in the first 6 months. The VCT center will serve to educate, counsel, and treat for opportunistic infections as well as facilitate prevention and community support activities. It will also be a center-point for anti-retrovirals ensuring continued adherence.

+ Prevention Education | Critical to reducing stigma and halting the spread of the disease, AIDS prevention messaging will play a central role in programs in Marsabit. This education will first take place at the VCT center followed by reinforcement through community training, mobile clinics, and home-based support groups. Targeting vulnerable populations such as women and youth will be an important component as well as working towards transforming cultural practices and social stigmas that affect the spread and impact of the disease.

+ Community Support | As individuals struggle to live with the realities of HIV/AIDS, one of the most effective means of assistance come through establishing Home-Based Care (HBC) groups. These groups allow focused training opportunities in areas such as palliative care, nutrition, and income generating activities. By providing a system where members can support one another, not only are daily physical and emotional needs met, but social stigma greatly declines as community members see HIV infected people living productive lives.