Keep hope alive

Our Story of the Month

Malenga Inspired by Stay Alive Program in her Work with Nairobi Schools

By Lillian Odiero, Stay Alive Evaluator
January 2007

We have known for some time that Stay Alive is an effective program for creating change in the hearts and minds of young African children. It is also refreshing to discover how the program impacts adult trainers and teachers for the better, as this story attests.

Miss Marta Malenga, 21, has experienced positive changes and developed new hope as she teaches 120 children in classes four and five every week at Satellite Primary School in Kenya. She is one of the teachers from the Kivuli Center, in Nairobi, which trains people to instruct the Stay Alive curriculum in local schools.

The Kivuli Center is a Catholic-based charity devoted to helping homeless boys in Nairobi. The main purpose is to rehabilitate and educate children and help integrate them back into the community with new skills and the ability to support themselves. Currently, the center houses 72 boys between the ages of 3 and 15 years. The center's entrepreneurial, vocational training and social programs are designed to meet the physical, educational, spiritual and emotional needs of the boys. The Stay Alive program fits right into the objectives of the center.

In 2005, 30 adults at the Kivuli Center underwent training to teach the Stay Alive curriculum. After the training, the center persuaded the schools where most of the children from the center attend to incorporate Stay Alive into their heath programs. But the trainers went further than that. They believed these lessons are so important that they decided to teach the classes themselves.

Miss Malenga is one of these trainer-teachers. She is a community health worker at the Kivuli Center who conducts home visits to people in this community. Many of the people are living with the HIV virus, and some of them are parents to the children supported by the Kivuli Center. She has seen people succumb to AIDS over a long period of time.

“I wished there was a way I could be a part of something to help prevent people from getting infected with this deadly disease,” Miss Malenga said. “When the program came, I knew this was the answer to my prayers. It is wonderful to know that children have hope for living a long, loving life. I know what it means to live a short, painful and stigmatized life as, slowly, each of my patients have left this world hoping that someone came to their aid earlier.”

Miss Malenga is that “someone” coming to people's aid. By the end of this year, she will have taught Stay Alive to 250 students at Satellite Primary School , one-third of the school's enrollment. She reports the teachers are very happy with the program and they say it has changed the behavior of many children. The teachers are happy about being able to teach the program themselves.

“Teachers in the neighboring schools have been asking me to come and teach the program in their school because children whose friends are in my class are asking the teachers about the program,” Miss Malenga said. “Children are so excited about the program. It is common to meet them on the road talking about the program and its content. I am so happy to be a part of a program that is helping children develop hope for a brighter future and one that teaches them how to take care of themselves. I just keep wishing all the patients I am taking care of had a similar opportunity earlier in life before they contracted AIDS.”

Stay Alive is impacting the Kivuli Center in a major way, too, Miss Malenga reports. The Health Department at the center is creating awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The school is reaching out to the children where they are and taking them to a more desirable level, one where their minds are being impacted and their hearts sensitized in order to prepare them for a world filled with adversity. The Stay Alive students are being taught to aim for the future with hopes of a long loving life.

Miss Malenga is thankful for the Stay Alive program, and she hopes that one day she will not be needed in this community because children will have made resolutions to avoid behaviors that compromise their health. There would then be no need for community health workers.

“I have promised to stand by these children later in life as I provide therapy to help them overcome the traumatic experiences of losing loved ones to the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” Miss Malenga said.

Miss Malenga has dedicated her professional time to save the lives of children in Koinonia community, and she has left lasting impressions on the program. She realizes the beauty this program is bringing into the lives of children. Miss Malenga feels profoundly touched by the program and she has a deep sense of satisfaction and gratitude for the program and what it teaches.