Ignorance Ignorance Ignorance

On Friday, Michael and I went to the Nyumbani Children’s Home at noon and rode the school bus to two public primary schools in Karen, which is a suburb of Nairobi. The Nyumbani staff brings lunch to the older children who stay for a full-day and pick up the children who only stay for a half-day.

First, we visited St. Mary’s Karen Primary School that had murals covering the outside walls of their school buildings. One read “AIDS KILLS PEOPLE DEAD”. Another read “Avoid Pornography”. And another read “DON’T HAVE SEX WITH A STRANGER.


Next, we visited Karen C Primary School. Painted in red, stripped across the main school building in big capital letters reads, “AIDS HAS NO CURE! AIDS KILLS!”


My jaw literally dropped. I couldn’t believe it. At a primary school where children as young as seven years old are going to school lies the definition of discrimination. A school is supposed to be a place for educating and for the truth. I’ve always thought that ignorance breeds from not being educated. I never thought that a school would breed ignorance.

I couldn’t believe that these children from Nyumbani who are HIV positive go to school everyday with “AIDS HAS NO CURE! AIDS KILLS!” greeting them. It’s horrible. It’s unfair. It’s ignorant. It’s disturbing.

These children have already faced so much stigma and discrimination in the Kenya school system. Before 2004, HIV positive children were not admitted to any public school and most private schools in Kenya. The Nyumbani children all went to an expensive private school in Karen that fortunately enrolled them. When President Kibaki came into power in 2003 in Kenya, primary school became free. However, public schools were still refusing to accept not only Nyumbani children but also all HIV positive children saying they “simply didn’t have any vacancies”. The founder and former director of Nyumbani, Father Angelo D’Agostino decided enough was enough and sued the Kenyan government for their policy on banning HIV positive children from the education system. Father D’Agostino won the case in 2004, which allowed for more than 100,000 children to finally be able to go to school.

But still almost four years later, the children still face an enormous stigma against them.

While AIDS does not have a cure, it doesn’t necessarily always kill anymore. Thanks to antiretroviral drugs, HIV positive individuals can live long, healthy and normal lives. Antiretrovirals (ARVs) are the drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS. They work by stopping HIV from replicating in the CD4 cells, which are the cells that are responsible for helping the body to fight off infections. ARVs reduce the amount of the virus in a patient’s bloodstream, allowing the CD4 cells to be replenished and restores immune function. ARVs have significantly cut down the AIDS death rates in many countries and has dramatically enhanced the quality of life for those lucky enough to be on these life-saving drugs.

Most of the Nyumbani children are on ARVs and therefore will live long healthy lives. But unfortunately until our world can become more accepting, they will still face enormous discrimination and in the immediate future they will still read “AIDS HAS NO CURE! AIDS KILLS!” everyday.