Kim Freeman: BA, 2004: Communication skills put to work helping AIDS orphans in Ethiopia
By ANNALISA GIUST
UW News Lab
After graduating in journalism from the UW in 2004, Kim, now 24, moved back to her home state of Colorado. Here she began a master’s program at the University of Denver in 2005 in International and Intercultural Communications. She is also pursuing a certificate in Global Health Affairs.
In the summer of 2005, Freeman designed her own internship helping AIDS orphans in Africa. Currently a grad student, she spent the summer with an international organization in Ethiopia.
In order to create the internship, Kim contacted the director of PCI (Project Concern International). She set up a situation in which she could be in Ethiopia for two months writing, editing, and doing photography for promotional materials for PCI in partnership with a variety of in-country health organizations that help AIDS orphans and at-risk children. This internship was Kim’s third trip to the African continent and when I spoke with her recently she told me, “This [Africa] is really where my heart is.”
Kim spent the majority of her internship in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. While abroad Kim kept a daily computer journal and sent entries to friends and family so they could share in her daily adventures. She sent me a few of her journal entries to help describe her experiences.
These ranged from the 23-hour trek from Colorado to Ethiopia, to buying fruit at the neighborhood fruit stands, to trying to find a gym to work out in, to excursions outside the capital city. In her journal Kim noted that more than 1.5 million Ethiopians are estimated to have HIV. She also describes seeing groups of women going to and from the funerals of family members and friends on a daily basis, just one of the effects the disease is having in this country.
Kim’s reasons for going to Africa, outside of an internship requirement for grad school, are evident from speaking with her and reading her journal. She describes the first time she made in-home visits with PCI’s partner organization, Addis Development Vision. She relates the utterly desperate conditions of children with disabilities in circumstances that by American standards would be akin to child abuse. In this very poor country, they are just par for the course.
Kim’s sense of hope shines in every line she writes; her acknowledgment of a smile, a disabled child’s small and at the same time monumental achievement is related in her journal. When I was able to briefly speak with Kim on the phone I could hear in her voice the enthusiasm and dedication she brings to this work and area of study that she is so obviously passionate about.
I asked her if there were any stories that stood out in her mind and she shared an event that occurred toward the end of her internship. She had gone to visit a mother and daughter, both living with full-blown AIDS. This particular visit enabled her to put faces to the disease; to see and interact one-on-one with people who are affected by it daily. “It is impossible to see these people and not want to do something,” she said.
Kim isn’t entirely sure what her plans are after graduation this spring. She absolutely wants to return to Africa. She is looking for work that combines communications with global health issues. This could mean working stateside for a nonprofit health organization, or a non-government organization in Africa, or a term in the Peace Corps.
Kim Freeman is definitely a young woman who will figure out how to do it. As she told me, “This does help people.”
Kim Freeman: Waters International
Posted: 11.26.07
Kim Freeman graduated with a master’s from the University of Denver in August, 2007, and have been working with Healing Waters International as a program development specialist, doing reserach worldwide for areas needing water projects. She just got back from nearly four weeks in Kenya researching new project opportunities for Waters International. Here are excerpts from her travels:
29.10.2007
The real heart and passion for our water projects begin at the community level. Without first understanding the true values, needs and priorities of slum communities, we would not be able to develop projects in which people supported and respected. Community visits are a must on any trip. Our team uses our eyes to see, our ears to listen, our noses to smell, our feet to walk, our hands and smiles to greet and our hearts to embrace in every community we visit. If we do not use all of our senses, we will never understand communities.
Through slightly open windows diesel fumes permeate our space within our nine-seater van. Moses is navigating Nairobi’s unpleasant traffic with ease and without temper, regardless of the many times he’s cutoff. We’re on our way to two Compassion International site visits with Beatrice and Elkanah, Compassion partnership facilitators. Both projects are on the eastern side of Nairobi, which tend to have more water supplied by the Nairobi Water Company than other areas but also suffer from higher child mortality rates. The first site is at Shaurimoyo Baptist Church which is near Majengo, a large slum known for prostitution and poor families forcing girls as young as nine into the trade. Currently, the project has 355 sponsored children, of which 10 are HIV positive. Water flows to the church only once a week but never fills its 10,000 liter tank even with a small pump. Every Saturday the church must spend 900ksh or $13.50 to buy enough water for cooking, drinking and latrines in order to serve all the Compassion children. All water must also be boiled or injected with Waterguard prior to consumption which creates an additional expense.
On more than an acre of land, there is plenty of room for the Compassion children to play and the church welcomes the community to enjoy the space. The church has a VCT (voluntary testing and counseling program) so people can discover their HIV status, a training center to learn computers and sewing and a nursery school in addition to the Compassion project. Located on a busy road and with an estimated population of more than 500,000 in a five kilometer radius, the church is one that should be explored further for HWI projects, however the question of water quantity would be a major issue. After an hour and a half on the church property, our team piles back in the van and we drive up to the Majengo slum.
Once in Majengo slum, we immediately see a water kiosk which is managed by a community group in the area. Supposedly there are 13 water kiosks in the slum and water flows from the taps everyday straight from Nairobi Water Company in the main pipe to the airport. We witness not a drop of water dripping in the queue of jerry cans waiting to be filled. Families can pay a monthly fee of less than $1 for water or they can pay three cents for 5 gallons. A water cart with 20 jerry cans also waits to be filled so a young man can make his daily wages. Though he’ll pay only 2 Kenyan shilling for every jerry can, he’ll go and sell them for 10.
Walking down the road to a Compassion child’s home, I fight back tears when I see an emaciated woman, her skin withered on her thin bones. She is suffering from AIDS and her body has nothing left to fight back. Though I’ve met so many with AIDS before and have seen horrible suffering, nothing has ever caught my emotions as much as she did. All of our team greets her and the other women who surround her. From here, we step into a slum dwelling or a traditional home of more than 60 percent of Nairobians. Within one mud and corrugated tin dwelling, there are six rooms which are each a home of a different family. Sheets represent doors in spaces with zero privacy. In the home we visit all of us try to crowd in a 6′ by 6′ space. The smell of stale sweat permeates the air. Little light peeps through a small open window, while a cat peers down on us from the rafters. We listen to the family’s story of seven living in that single room and how their son is now in the leadership development program offered by Compassion. There are no water taps anywhere in their home or even full jerry cans. Beyond having no water to drink, families can also not bathe when there is no water.
While walking out of the slum, I again have to fight back emotion. This time a teenage girl walks past me. Her head is three times the normal size. She is suffering from hydrocephalus, a disease where excess fluid on the brain cannot be released and causes swelling. She most likely will never have the resources for treatment and ultimately will die. For many of us, this day was particularly hard. Later, we continued on to the Korogocho slum where needs were even higher. We had back throwing-up after crossing a river following heavily of raw sewage with breeze blowing in the same direction we were walking. On the bright side, we witnessed how Compassion works in the slums of Nairobi and forms communities to help care for children. We witnessed a nutrition workshop for young mothers in which to take their infants and learn proper nutrition. We hope to come alongside Compassion-Kenya and find ways to provide clean water to Compassion children, families and the surrounding community.
30.10.2007
Freshly brewed coffee and chai rest next to pastries and breads on a table outside the Fairview Hotel’s Kijiji B conference room. Inside Aaron, Ed and I prep for our church leader’s meeting. It’s 6:15 a.m. My body is still recovering from the 15-hour work the previous day. We go over the PowerPoint and agenda. At 7 a.m. many leaders arrive. We’ve managed to gather 15 ministry leaders from around Nairobi and from different denominations and organizations. Our main points of the meeting are to share what HWI is doing around the world, why we are in Nairobi and to learn as much as we can from the church leaders about ministering in Nairobi. We particularly want to learn the mistakes other NGOs have made when working with churches.
After our introduction, the pastors immediately echo what we’ve heard “Water is needed in Nairobi, water brings healing to communities.” In order for us to be a good NGO in Nairobi we must first listen to the community. Our listening begins with the church leaders. They tell us we must partner with others, involve key stakeholders, empower the local community and have a heart ready to help. Where ministries often go wrong is when they offer closed programs, create dependence through handouts and don’t do their research about the community and their needs. We’re already trying to ease our entry but extensive research and by focusing on selling clean drinking to everyone no matter if they are Christian, rich, poor, young or old. Everyone deserves clean water. The two-hour meeting ended with Ed speaking to everyone’s hearts. He told everyone they must first be servants before being leaders. As we have seen in Kenya, being a leader is often everyone’s priority but what happens is leaders forget to also be servants. If people cannot serve their communities then they are not very good leaders.
In less than two hours I’ve booked many more follow-up meetings and community visits with the church leaders. We have leads on Ministry of Health contacts as well as information on hiring staff and starting an NGO in Kenya. If you’re looking for someone or something in Kenya, I’m sure someone’s Uncle knows a friend’s cousin who can help you. The power of networking.
Our meeting with men in suits and ties is shortly followed-up by a community visit to Kibera or what has become the “tourist slum” of Nairobi. We meet with Kenya Water for Health Organization or KWAHO, a local NGO focusing on water and sanitation through various technologies. The organization has been in existence for more than 30 years and has water projects in Kibera and Mukuru slums and in five of the country’s provinces. Since 2004, the organization has also been working to rehabilitate the water resources along the tsunami stricken coast.
SODIS is the technology we decide to see in Kibera though KWAHO also has water tanks connected to Nairobi Water Company throughout the city. SODIS uses clear plastic bottles no larger than 1.5 litters to purify water simply by using the suns rays. All a family needs to do is fill a clear plastic bottle with contaminated water, put the bottle on top of their roof and wait at least six hours. Because of the limited space and transparency of the bottle, bacteria are killed simply by the UV rays. Though a simple technology, SODIS takes a lot of community educational campaigns which KWAHO has more than 20 promoters who also live in the slums. Behavior change is hard but SODIS is inexpensive and effective. One problem: Nairobi has two rainy seasons and sun does not shine completely for six hours at a time. People are told twelve hours is better just to be positive all bacteria are killed. In the two years since KWAHO started SODIS they have more than 60,000 households in Kibera who have been trained to use the technology. It’s a good start, but Kibera is home to more than 700,000 residents and clean water is an everyday need.
