A trainer’s viewpoint
Trainers who have attended stigma-reduction training of trainers workshops in Kenya describe some of the ways the training has affected their lives and their communities.
Today, I am a more resourceful person in the community
Training others in a stigma-reduction programme has helped me to cope with my own internalised stigma. This has enabled me to live more positively. And interacting with new people who appreciate my training skills has brought to me some fulfilment.
My skills are useful to me not only in stigma-reduction training but also in my career, particularly in public relations. They have helped me to become a better facilitator, and people appreciate my work more than ever before. Today, I am a more resourceful person in the community because of the fight against HIV. This makes me feel recognised and useful to the people I serve.
As a trainer of trainers, I now can identify stigma in my community and I am happy to help others reduce the stigma around them. Through me, many people have realised how stigma affects the community, and together we are focusing on ways to reduce it and help individuals achieve a better quality of life without discrimination. Margaret Muasya
I am a leader in my community
Until I became a trainer of trainers on stigma reduction I never imagined that one day I would be able to offer assistance to a large number of people. That’s when everything changed. The title of ‘Nyanza district representative stigma trainer of trainers’ has accorded me respect and recognition. I am a leader in my community. Now I have been given a new title, ‘teacher’, by my community, and I feel satisfied when people come to congratulate me for a job well done and, above all, for changing their attitudes.
I have had the opportunity to facilitate training workshops in other districts where I have earned reasonable allowances, which have enabled me to lead a more healthy lifestyle. The knowledge and skills I have acquired during training have also enabled me to go to places I never thought I would ever go to. For instance, I attended the 2007 World Social Forum meeting in Kenya, where I was invited as a delegate in recognition of my work. Lorna A Dawo
I venture out with confidence
I learnt things beyond my imagination during the stigma-reduction training of trainers, and my life has never been the same again. I venture out with greater confidence and I am more bold and tactful in the way I handle stigma-related issues. My own training approach has become much easier. Facilitation has become stress free, and panicking and sweating a thing of the past. With plenty of ice-breakers on hand, training is now exciting!
What I do as a trainer of trainers has affected my own life too. The cocoon or the shell that covered me has broken off and I feel liberated. I used to think that going public and being open about my HIV status were the only ways I could improve my positive living, but I was wrong. The anti-stigma toolkit alone has been a miracle. What seemed impossible before now has become easier. Liavuli Beverly Lusigi
The community calls me mwarimu
Since the Mombasa stigma-reduction training workshop I have managed to carry out stigma-reduction training in my family and community. Most important to me is the fact that the African Evangelistic Enterprise, a church-based organisation, accepted that the anti-stigma toolkit be taught in its home-based care classes.
In my church there was a lot of stigma, but after the workshop I managed to speak out openly on the issue of stigma in the church. I requested an opportunity as a person living with HIV to give a testimony on what I believe God had done to me, and this message touched the feelings of many other stigmatised people who were in the same situation within the church. Since then, a support group for people living with HIV was formed in the church and the pastor fully encourages and supports us. The community now calls me mwarimu, a Swahili word that means ‘teacher’. Winnicate N Kimotho
Targeting young people
After graduating as a stigma-reduction trainer I enrolled in an orphan centre, where I offer counselling to HIV-positive pupils who had been sidelined until now. I can see positive changes in behaviour among them, although the process is gradual.
I also have a community-based organisation called Inter Christian Charity Organisation, where I have trained all 50 members in stigma-reduction training. Our group has a sensitisation and awareness campaign on stigma in several secondary and primary schools. One day a week we go to the schools for two-hour sessions discussing issues related to HIV stigma. If my organisation gets funding, we intend to carry out an intensive stigma-reduction training programme during the vacation to all secondary schools and some primary schools in the Embakasi constituency, targeting young people who are more vulnerable to HIV. Edwin Masheti
As a Christian I refuse to judge others
The training I received on stigma reduction has played a major role in helping me understand how the community can be educated to change their misconceptions and face their fears by getting the facts right. In one encounter with women members of a local church I got a chance to discuss stigma and discrimination. Everyone was surprised to realise that they had contributed to stigmatising or had been stigmatised without knowing that this was wrong. In a church set-up, anyone found to be HIV positive is regarded as a sinner and judged as promiscuous. As a Christian I refused to judge others, and in so doing I won the trust of a young woman who had been forced out of her matrimonial home by her in-laws after her husband tested HIV positive. After a number of visits and conversations, the young woman was able to counter the stigma that had arisen through lack of knowledge and she was reunited with her husband. This gave me a great feeling of satisfaction. Judith N Maina
Action-packed and participatory
At the training, new methods and techniques were introduced to me that were action-packed, participatory and full of interesting energisers. It was learner friendly and extremely economical in terms of the cost. The trainers were all knowledgeable, experienced and well-versed in the training topics, and had a lot of dedication and commitment to their work. The toolkit was well researched, perfectly designed and relevant to the training.
The training I received was sharpened by a subsequent invitation to carry out a co-facilitation in Gaborone, Botswana, with the stigma-reduction training team from the Alliance. My knowledge and skills were tested and put to good use as a co-facilitator when the Alliance provided funds for district workshops in Nairobi and Bungoma. Thanks to my training, I have been able to carry out stigma-reduction trainings at household level (family and neighbours), district level (district workshops), regional level (Gaborone) and international level (World Social Forum 2007). Leonard Mbichi
I did not know that I could change people’s lives
Life hasn’t been the same for me since my training as a national stigma-reduction trainer of trainers. Before that, I did not know that I could change people’s lives. As a social worker, I had met a lot of stigma-related challenges in different communities, but I had no idea how to deal with them. However, the information I got from the Alliance has made me into a heroine!
In one instance, I successfully intervened when a woman was about to be thrown out of her family after testing HIV positive. Imagine the pain of being thrown out at a time when one most needs support and is in ill health! Happily, while helping this family I was backed by the local government, who provided the local chief’s security personnel to escort me because the situation was extremely tense. And when I had a stigma sensitisation and awareness-raising event in the same village, my area district commissioner was the guest of honour. Spinika Nyaboke Ratemo
Heads held high
In every aspect of our lives we face different kinds of stigma. The training of trainers workshop helped me realise that we tend to stigmatise other people or family members without even knowing it. Stigma is like a rock that is sitting in the middle of a river. No matter how fast the current flows, it doesn’t move.
But there is a saying that ‘To every problem there is a solution’. It is satisfying to see the dedication that people put into fighting stigma. The stigma-reduction training of trainers has helped me to identify those who are facing stigma, as well as those who stigmatise others. I now realise that there is a great need to incorporate the issue of stigma into other programmes in order to create stigma awareness among community members.
The anti-stigma toolkit is being used as a tool to fight stigma. Participants identify with the stories told in it and are facing up to their fears, realising that it’s up to them do something about it and to get out of the closet with their heads held high. It’s time to get a boulder, break that rock into pieces and free ourselves from bondage. Beatress
Stigma is the greatest challenge in the response to HIV
The Alliance training of trainers came at a time when I really needed a deeper understanding of HIV and AIDS stigma, and the skills to challenge it in the community. After realising that stigma is the greatest challenge in the response to HIV and AIDS in Kenya, REACH, the organisation I work for, has integrated stigma awareness into all programmes, with funding from the Alliance. REACH has successfully trained people from key organisations and institutions in Kibwezi district, who have now integrated stigma awareness into their programmes. We are doing follow-ups to ensure that the skills trickle down still further. This has earned REACH community-based organisation recognition for our role in the fight against HIV and AIDS in the district.
As a member of the constituency AIDS control committee and the district technical committee I have encouraged the idea of getting more stakeholders on board in order to prioritise stigma-reduction issues. I am now consulted over planning and even participate in some stigma-reduction activities. And as a member of the Kenya stigma-reduction training of trainers team, I have been identified to facilitate stigma-reduction workshops by NEPHAK. Plans are ongoing to strengthen the stigma-reduction training of trainers team to focus on major trainings nationally. Michael K Mutava
People suffer more due to ignorance
I used to have many difficulties in handling issues related to stigma and discrimination. But in my training I acquired skills and have made a great success of disseminating information to the community through public barazas [community meetings], churches, youth forums and support groups. In the trainings I have met many people with different opinions and I have helped to change the lives of community members who are either directly or indirectly affected by stigma and discrimination. I am happy to be implementing regional stigma-reduction training activities in the South Rift Valley region, and I participated in the district training workshops as a facilitator, which has greatly built up my expertise. The lesson I have learnt is that people suffer more due to ignorance. Steve Ndungu Kamau
