Phoebe House

So I thought you all might like to hear a little about a new project here in Kenya called the Phoebe House, which is a halfway house for abandoned HIV patients. The Phoebe house was started just a few months ago, and was named after it's first guest, who is currently still living there. Phoebe was a patient that came in very sick and found out at the hospital that HIV was the reason she was nearly dead (typical HIV positive presentation). Her 3 yr old son pictured here was also found to be positive. The pic below is of her while she was in the hospital. After being discharged, she went home to find a grave dug in the front yard, which turned out to be for her, as her husband had found out her HIV status. Her husband told her to take the HIV positive son and never come back. So in case you were wondering, yes-a bit of stigma still remains regarding HIV. She came back to the hospital as she had nowhere else to go. The above picture is of her 3 weeks after moving into the house. It seems that food, water, anti-retrovirals (HIV meds), and maybe a little love can do a lot for a person. When I visited her last week, I found her sleeping on a concrete floor, with a cardboard box as a mattress, and one wool blanket for the two of them. And completely happy. We are hoping to get beds, mattresses and cooking supplies soon. Right now their is a house mother who cooks for the ladies, as some of them are too weak to cook or do any housework.
When I asked Phoebe if there was anything she wanted that I could bring her, she asked for nail polish so she could, "look like that", and pointed at my freshly polished toes. I was expecting her to ask for so much more. So nail polish she shall get!
Keep these ladies and the Phoebe House in your prayers. They're doing great, but they've still got a long way to go.

Jessie