The Mzungu (Swahili for white person) Sex Nurse Of Kenya Making a Difference One Banana At A Time

Susan Gold is a living example that it’s never too late to go after your dream.

The Chicago native always knew she wanted to be an international nurse but she didn’t have enough money to go to college—only enough for two years at a community college, got married at 24 and ended up raising three children in Madison, Wisconsin.

But at 34, she wanted to go back out in the world and thought she had too much energy to stay home with her children for the rest of her life. So she enrolled in the University of Wisconsin’s nursing program part-time and graduated the weekend before she turned 40. In high school, she graduated in the bottom third of her class, but in college, she graduated first.


Susan worked as a nurse at the UW Children Hospital in the pediatric oncology department for nine years. Next she worked at the UW General Pediatric and Adolescent Clinic, which provided the medical care at the juvenile detention center, and later worked at the Pediatric Infectious Disease Clinic.

After running eight marathons and climbing several mountains, Susan and her husband, Tim, traveled to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. As they were driving to the trailhead to begin the climb, Susan caught sight of a clinic crowded with women and children and wished she could be the nurse at that clinic. Once she returned back home, she couldn’t stop thinking about international nursing and decided to either actually do it or stop wanting to do it.

Susan applied to the Catholic Medical Mission Board to get an international nursing position and was assigned in 2003 to Kenya for two months at Nyumbani Children’s Home, which houses about 100 HIV-positive children. And from the day she left, she started thinking about how she could get back.


Susan first applied for a Fulbright scholarship in 2005 but was only named an alternate. She reapplied the following year proposing to create a health education program for HIV-positive adolescents and won. As Susan was putting together the curriculum, she realized that she couldn’t talk to HIV-positive children about having safe sex if she didn’t first talk about what sex is. So she created a five-part class focusing on sexuality education (your body, sex and pregnancy), the immune system and HV, HIV and AIDS, STD transmission prevention including condom use, and contraception.


Currently, the Catholic Church still does not support condom use. However, several bishops including Nyumbani’s founder Father D’Agostino spoke out about the condom being acceptable for HIV-positive individuals.

Susan planned on teaching her class to the children at the Nyumbani’s Children Home, the children at the Lea Toto community-outreach program and the Nyumbani Village. What Susan didn’t know was that there would be an entire country waiting to hear her class. She’s taken her class to orphanages, parents’ groups, schools, slums, coffee houses, office buildings, the streets and hotels. Basically anywhere people find out what Susan does, they want her to conduct a class. Her class is so in demand because sexual education doesn’t really exist in Kenya. In the schools, there is a class where they touch on some sex education, but it’s mostly bogged down with religion and politics and often times not even the truth. What Susan found was that children had the most questions about their bodies and sex. And parents also wanted to know how to teach their kids about sex as well as teachers wanting to know how to teach their students. There is such a strong taboo around sex here that it’s simply not talked about. Parents and teachers don’t feel comfortable talking about it, and children end up getting most of their information from their peers, which is almost never accurate. Susan designed the class for HIV-positive adolescents but has easily tweaked the curriculum to apply to HIV-negative adolescents, adults and young children.


Susan admits that talking to adolescents about sex is difficult. She remembers how she did a terrible job with her own kids, but reassures adults taking her class that the hardest part is knowing how to say it and getting past those awkward moments.

In Kenya, sexual politics is still very much under the control of men leaving women, and by extension children, having little say in prevention and protection. That’s why Susan said her program needs to be more focused on the boys because nothing is going to change for women, until the men start changing. A Kenyan man told Susan that sex in Kenya is like riding a bike. You get on, ride and get off. And the bike can’t say it doesn’t want to be ridden either. Even if Kenyan women know about the safety in a condom, she won’t ask to use one for fear of her husband or boyfriend beating her or even worse leaving her. In a country that is generations away from gender equality, women mostly depend on men for economic support.


While Susan’s program is opening people’s minds, behavior change is one of the most difficult areas to combat. And in Kenya, we’re talking about traditions that are centuries old. Most people back in the states (including myself) often ask why they (Africans) are not using condoms. But what Susan made me realize is that the phenomenon of using a condom in Kenya is fairly recent and the average Kenyan doesn’t have the same access to education and the exposure that we do back in the states. And how can an American judge a Kenyan for not wearing a condom and for not changing their behavior when we all know that smoking will kill you yet 25% of Americans still smoke. We all know drinking and driving will kill you, and how many of us still do it. And we all know that obesity can kill you yet 64% of us are obese!

Susan said what has to change for children is access to education and the economy. Then she put me on the spot. She asked me why I stayed out of trouble in high school and why I didn’t get pregnant. I told her it was because I wanted to go to college and become a journalist. But what’s different between me and most children in Kenya, Susan said, is having a future. Kids here don’t have the connection of what I do today is going to affect tomorrow because so many kids all throughout Africa don’t know if they’ll have a tomorrow. While 65 percent of girls finish primary school, only 35 percent finish secondary school in Kenya. For me, it was never an option that I wouldn’t go to college- let alone finish high school. Susan explained that children here have to know they have a future or nothing will change.


Susan’s program has been so successful that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a U.S. funded program founded by President Bush, is going to fund Susan to return to Kenya next year to continue and expand her program. Susan will direct the program while training a Kenyan nurse to take it over in 2009. The hope is that Susan’s program will become a part of core Kenyan educational curriculum.

Susan said what she misses most is her ignorance. Because when she was ignorant about AIDS in Africa, it was easy to say it’s over there, but she doesn’t have that luxury anymore. She has names and faces and kids’ bodies and babies she’s held and mothers she’s helped.


Clearly, Susan is not your typical 56 year-old woman. While she could be back in the states getting ready to retire, she’s in Kenya putting condoms on bananas and telling kids that “A” goes into “B” during sex! She’s definitely one of the coolest people I’ve ever met—not to mention a complete inspiration that no matter who you are, you can make a difference. Small things can make big changes. You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Mother Theresa or an ex-president to leave a mark. You can make a difference with who you are and what you have.