Akinyi(Not real name) is a single mother of four from one of the fishing communities. She separated from her first husband after living a very painful and abusive marriage which left her infected with HIV.  Vin(not real name), who is a 5year old OVC, is her last born son whom she gave birth to with the second husband.  It is after Vin’s birth that she discovered she was HIV positive because Vin was diagnosed with HIV. This led to a lot of stress and regrets on her part and she wished that she would have just stayed single after her first abusive marriage.

When the household was enrolled with one of our projects, Vin was so weak from malnourishment and the effects of HIV with very high viral load (VL). After a thorough household vulnerability assessment, a case plan was developed with the help of a community health volunteer (CHV) and the need to strengthen the family  economically was singled out as the first priority to address food security and other social needs.

Akinyi was given emergency fund to urgently mitigate social challenges like food security, health and other needs.

Besides household strengthening, DEVLINK  was able to facilitate the household to seek health services at the County referral hospital. At the referral hospital, the project staff linked Vin with the nutrition department who assigned one of their staff to monitor Dedan’s progress.  Several tests were conducted on him and he was diagnosed with TB. The project paid off Vin’s hospital bills upon discharge.  The project also supported the household/ Caroline with business fund (seed fund) to start Income Generating Activity (IGA) of choice.