Widow beats stigma to become role model

[Guest guest]

Widow beats stigma to become role model

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Harold Ayodo

Many rural women mark the World Aids Day with Mrs Celine Agutu as a

role model who overcame stigma of the virus.

Agutu, who contracted HIV/Aids from a brother-in-law who inherited her

after the death of her husband, used farming to overcome

discrimination in Siaya district.

The mother of two is today happy to preach the gospel that farming and

Anti-Retroviral Therapy saved her life.

Agutu, 30, whose husband died in 1997 after a long illness is today a

role model to the many HIV/Aids infected widows in East Ugenya

sub-location.

Her insistence on good agricultural practices has benefited widows,

grandmothers and orphans infected and affected by the scourge.

Her traditional vegetables, bananas, groundnuts and milk from her goat

enabled her start a retail shop that serves Inungo Village.

Agutu, who knew of her status in 2002 after her 'new' husband married

a second wife, embarked on agriculture to survive.

" I met Fidelis Wainaina — the founder of Maseno Inter-Christian Child

Self-Help Group, a community-based organisation, who taught me how to

farm, " she says.

Wainaina was the winner of this year's Sh7.5 million African Green

Revolution Yara Prize on food security.

The Yara Prize was established to implement action in support of the

Millennium Development Goals and entrench a Green Revolution in

Africa.

Agutu's children aged seven and 13 were malnourished before she

started making ends meet. Today, however, her health has improved

significantly after she started taking Anti-Retrovirals.

[Guest guest]

Widow beats stigma to become role model

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Harold Ayodo

Many rural women mark the World Aids Day with Mrs Celine Agutu as a

role model who overcame stigma of the virus.

Agutu, who contracted HIV/Aids from a brother-in-law who inherited her

after the death of her husband, used farming to overcome

discrimination in Siaya district.

The mother of two is today happy to preach the gospel that farming and

Anti-Retroviral Therapy saved her life.

Agutu, 30, whose husband died in 1997 after a long illness is today a

role model to the many HIV/Aids infected widows in East Ugenya

sub-location.

Her insistence on good agricultural practices has benefited widows,

grandmothers and orphans infected and affected by the scourge.

Her traditional vegetables, bananas, groundnuts and milk from her goat

enabled her start a retail shop that serves Inungo Village.

Agutu, who knew of her status in 2002 after her 'new' husband married

a second wife, embarked on agriculture to survive.

" I met Fidelis Wainaina — the founder of Maseno Inter-Christian Child

Self-Help Group, a community-based organisation, who taught me how to

farm, " she says.

Wainaina was the winner of this year's Sh7.5 million African Green

Revolution Yara Prize on food security.

The Yara Prize was established to implement action in support of the

Millennium Development Goals and entrench a Green Revolution in

Africa.

Agutu's children aged seven and 13 were malnourished before she

started making ends meet. Today, however, her health has improved

significantly after she started taking Anti-Retrovirals.