I have been watching the stories on the current famine being run on local television stations and I had to ask myself so many questions. Why do we always find ourselves in such situation as a country every year? What can we do to stop this famine scourge once and for all?… I think Kenyans should take the famine issue much more seriously. Even though you may not be affected directly by hunger and famine, you will be affected indirectly. Earlier this week, we heard the PS in the ministry of education say that more for free primary education and subsidized secondary education had been diverted to buy foodstuffs for famine stricken Kenyans. Although ministry of finance officials swiftly denied the allegations, that example alone shows how famine could affect this country in serious manner.

Famine will indeed affect the fight against HIV/AIDS in a big way. One way of managing HIV is through nutrition and when a victim does not feed well then chances of HIV supressing his immunity are emminent. Their also the danger of young girls being lured into sex and early marriages in exchange for food and money. This exposes them to the HIV virus.

We therefore need to think of a way as I choose life of ways in which we can contribute to the fight against hunger in the short term and also in the long time. Guys please come with suggestions.

Jijue One Million campaign has been progressing quite well and I trust that this week we will hit the 10,000 mark which will be the first milestone towards achieving the Jijue dream. The campaign has encountered many challenges.

The campaign is driven by the 5 becauses of Jijue
1 out of every 10 Kenyans is still unaware of VCT services
2 out of every 3 Kenyans do not know their HIV status
3 out of every 5 Kenyans who are infected with HIV are women
4 out of every 5 people who are infected do not know they are infected
5% or less of all resources are allocated to Youth oriented prevention programs

In order to achieve the Jijue dream we will require support in any of the following areas:
1. Financial
2. Mobilization
3. Counseling and Testing - we need more VCT counsellors. Qualified counsellors are highly encouraged to volunteer
4. Spreading out the word through channels such as facebook, sms, emails, word of mouth….
5. Advocacy - anybody who can push the jijue dream to the policy makers is highly welcome

I would like to wind up with a quote from Hon. Kofi Annan
“The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response. In particular it requires solidarity — between the healthy and the sick, between rich and poor, and above all, between richer and poorer nations. We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?”

Lets wake up Kenya and fight AIDs.