Each Friday I meet with a group of about 30 mothers, many who are HIV+, whose lives have been affected by someone's substance abuse. They live in Korogocho slum where I and my colleagues work. I try to use a 'fictitious' story with them to encourage sharing and discussion. Many of the stories I use while made up, are exactly what these women go through or so they tell me.
I've enclosed here the one I yesterday.
Mrs Shabazz is walking in the rain this night, having spent the whole day trying to find work. She used to
have a job cleaning the house and washing clothes for a lady in Kasarani (middle class neighborhood near
Korogocho) but was chased away the other day. This happen after Shabazz refused to work for less than 100kshs ($1.10) per day that the woman had been paying her up to this point. Shabazz tried to explain to the woman, who by the way has a very good job with Barclay's Bank, that she couldn't work for less than a 100Kshs because after
she used 40Kshs for bus fare to and from work, she would have nothing left to feed her children. Shabazz further
told the woman that she was scared of being thrown out of her 10' x 10' room she shares with her children because
she owes 2500Kshs in back rent and can't find a way to pay it off. The lady from Kasarani told her to go away,
saying that everyone has problems in Kenya these days and not to bother her with her sad story. So all Shabazz
has tonight to feed her five children is four pieces of stale bread and water.
Shabazzz is always sad and never feels happy Oh, she can laugh at some of the things that happen to her alright, like this lady in Kasarani who thinks SHE HAS PROBLEMS when she is making 60,000Kshs per month.
Shabazz is sad because other ladies who don't work as hard as she does, nor try to take care of their children as well as she does, always seem to have enough money. Mrs. Shabazz hates waking up in the morning now because she has no idea where she is going to find work. She could try Eastleigh but she hears many stories of housekeepers being sexually assaulted. Currently, two of her children are sick and she doesn't have the 50kshs (55 cents) needed to take them to the clinic and Shabazz certainly doesn't have the money to pay for their medicine. Walking home tonight means meeting her boy friend who wants, expects and demands to be fed and to be taken care of with sex, and to have a place to sleep since he is homeless-----BUT NEVER GIVES HER ANYTHING IN RETURN.
The thing that makes Shabazz so sad is she knows she is hard working and a good woman. She has tried very hard
to be a good mother to her five children, puts up with her boy friend when five other women have thrown him out, and worked hard for this lady in Kasarani. Why are these things happening to me, she asks herself? Is it because I
don't go to Church any more? Is it because that lady in Dandora got a witch doctor to place a curse on me after I quarreled with her? Is it because God hates me and likes playing jokes on poor mothers? When I think about praying,
all it does is make me more sad and depressed. "Our Father who art in heaven"----but does he ever come to Korogocho?
"Give us today our daily bread"-----then why are my children always hungry?
Shabazz is very sad and doesn't know what to do.
These are Family Hope Charity's clients (my organization). We love these women and we
* befriend them,
* listen to them and their stories with compassion and respect,
* and when the feeling of being taken seriously begins to sink in,
* we watch them slowly awaken to the possibility of a better life
away from drugs and alcohol.
* And as they move away, they begin to find ways to support themselves,
either on their own or with FHC's help.
* And when they can support themselves they can take care of their
children;
* then there are more happy children in Korogocho and less
sad and depressed kids.
That's the kind of Christmas that would be worth giving these women.
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