VSO’s Kenyan recruitment base, VSO Jitolee, has been sending East African volunteers overseas for over five years

“Before I came to Malawi, I worked for a youth health humanitarian organisation in Kenya that runs HIV & AIDS programmes and implements care and support activities for street children. I have been in Malawi for one year and three months. I am the first volunteer here and the first full-time national HIV & AIDS coordinator, working with 25 prisons across the country. We give prison officers training, as the civil service in Malawi hasn’t tackled HIV before.

Malawi has approximately 10,000 prisoners, with 1,700-1,800 in a prison like Lilongwe. One of the most serious problems is overcrowding. It makes it easy for HIV and other diseases like TB, the biggest killer, to spread. These prisons were built a long time ago; Lilongwe was meant to accommodate around 800 prisoners, but there is more than twice that number, so HIV and TB figures have gone up.

We do voluntary testing for HIV, but it is very difficult to convince the prisoners to be tested. Only four prisoners at Lilonwe are receiving anti-retroviral treament (drugs that suppress the action of the HIV virus). It has been hard to persuade the government to allow antiretrovirals for prisoners because they say prisoners sell drugs, but we have tried to convince them to allow treatment under observation therapy.

One achievement in my placement has been introducing a nutrition therapy programme. Prisoners who are sick now have supplementary diets to keep them healthy, as people who are HIV positive need to have a good diet.

I have also been learning Chichewa. Fortunately it is a Bantu language, just like my first language back in Kenya, so it has been easy for me to learn. Being an African, people here would find it difficult to accept if I could not speak their language. I think my greatest achievement, however, is the establishment of the voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centre at Zomba Prison, including training the counsellors who will be staffing the centre. Now the prisoners can access VCT facilities without any problem.”

Volunteering in Kenya to fight HIV and AIDS

UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities

Experience from disability programme taken to UN

We indeed made a big mark as the delegation that spoke with one voice as government and NGOs. We also were able to speak into all the articles because we substantively discussed the draft and made amendments.

I really felt proud of the Kenyan delegates for the comments and constructive ideas you have been raising.

More information

• Discussion notes           

National planning

We had excellent presentations and discussions that led to very comprehensive zero draft plan of action. The external and internal speakers besides were brilliant and they added real value to the process. We had a 50% representation of PWDs and their orgs. and all key ministries made their presentations which were critiqued very constructively.The general spirit was let's get things right now kind of thing. Open discussion and real solidarity. UNSAID and UNDP were the main donors present through out the conference... [they] promised to work towards getting disability issues on donors agenda and followed up at the donor round table meetings (started recently).

Funding for Children with Disabilities' Empowerment Programme (CDEP)

• training and supporting parents and their communities to organise and promote the rights of children with disabilities
• training and supporting for educational professionals to enhance their skills
• training and networking with other organisations providing services for people with disabilities to increase awareness, skills and coordination
• supporting campaigning and advocacy by people with disabilities on equal opportunities and access to services