Stories of courage and resilience from Grassroots Women Human Rights Defenders and Feminists in the face of the COVID-19 Pandemic
This is a production of the Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights defenders Kenya (CGHRDs Kenya). This publication was supported and funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Beating the odds of COVID-19 with counselling and hope; Kamene Muthoka, Community health Worker with City Council.
My name is Kamene Muthoka.
I am a Community health Worker with City Council. My work involves visiting households and referring them to hospital or other appropriate places they can get help. If l find malnourished children or lactating mothers that need help, l find help for them. If l visit a resident and they need counseling do that. I have been counseling people in Mathare for the last ten years. My joy is when someone who had given up on life is willing to try again. People need a lot of encouragement in this area. Most of my patients during COVID-19 have been those living With HIV/AIDS. Some of whom are my colleagues. Their appearance is very poor because of lack of food which is a result of losing jobs during this season of COVID-19.
I have experienced cases of domestic violence that have become normalized during this season. These cases used to be there but now, they are very high. The men were mostly in the house having lost their jobs. The women would go out and do menial jobs before there was a lockdown. Even after the lockdowns were lifted, some men haven’t gone back to work especially those in construction. The women go out and do menial jobs like washing clothes for their clients in Eastleigh. We have noticed that when the woman is the breadwinner, a lot of quarrels and fights arise because the men feel they are being disrespected. Love seems to have left these homes.
What has touched me the most during this season is that children get abused in the process of trying to get food for their families. Most of these children end up exchanging sexual favors for food. When l go to homes where children have been forced to get involved in sex work so as to get food l have to counsel them. I talk to the families to find out what can be done. If it is beyond counseling, l usually refer them to my colleagues who are human rights defenders. I work closely with Human Rights Defenders because of the cases we encounter in the field.
But counseling families during the pandemic has been challenging. We find other residents of Mathare who are very bitter because they feel COVID-19 has put a stop to their businesses. Recently, as we were carrying out a sensitization on Corona Virus, we visited a home where the man of the house kept saying he did not want to listen to what we had to say. As my colleagues stepped out and l was left there talking to the wife the man who had left us in the living room came back from the bedroom with a panga ready to attack me. I literally ran for my life. This pandemic has really affected people psychologically.
I would encourage those that are doing volunteer work here in Mathare not to be discouraged no matter what. God will reward us. These people need us. There are things that encourage me like how we rescued a malnourished child and had her taken to hospital in an ambulance. Her whole family had stayed hungry for days. We gave them the food we could get but the same story is sad. This is because one of her sisters who did not seem as badly off died the following day. We sadly later found out it was a case of malnourishment. Even with COVID-19, parents need to be very sensitive with the young ones so as not lose them. Cases this only make me want to help the community more because the more the information is out there on how to stay safe during COVID-19, the safer we are.
My strength that kept me going was support from my comrades from coalition for grassroots human rights defenders Kenya, with the love, support and solidarity that they showed me.
