There is high HIV/Aids prevalence rate in 'forgotten' slums in Mavoko Sub County, an NGO official has said.
Speaking at City Carton Slum in Athi River town on Wednesday, director of Positive Life Kenya Mary Wabwire said abject poverty among the residents exposed them to HIV/Aids virus.
“HIV/Aids is the second among the leading causes of deaths in Mavoko, those living in the slums are the most vulnerable due to poverty life cycle. Children are born, schooled and raised in the informal settlements only to drop out of school for lack of school fees and lack of access to basic needs thereby engaging in prostitution alongside their parents to earn a living,” said Ms Wabwire.
Wabwire said Mlolongo town, Lukenya area and Kicheko and City Carton Slums were the most affected by the scourge thereby having the highest infection rates in the sub county.
She said according to the UNICEF’s 2015 report, 12 percent of 1.6 million Kenyans living with HIV/Aids are residents of Mlolongo town and its environs while 25 percent are truck drivers.
She said the government and other key players in fight against HIV/Aids should support development projects in the slums instead of concentrating in larger slums like Kibera and Mathare in Nairobi.
“Slums like Kibera and Mathare are given more attention by both development partners and the government as the small ones in Mavoko are ignored. Apart from ARV’s offered by the government, there are a lot more which need to be given to people living with HIV/Aids” said Wabwire.
Wabwire said women and girls were more vulnerable.
“Women and girls come to Mlolongo looking for green pastures but end up getting into prostitution due to frustrations," she said.
She said truck drivers plying on Nairobi–Mombasa Highway were the major clients of women and girls from the slums who engage in prostitution to earn their livelihoods.
Wabwire said the NGO that work in Machakos, Kitui, Mombasa, Siaya, Busia and Kisumu Counties were supporting over 5,000 families from various slums in a bid of prevent new HIV/Aids infections.
She said the organization had transformed several prostitutes in Mlolongo’s Madharau street through counseling and training in life skills who are now earning decent livelihoods through income generating activities supported by Positive Life Kenya.
Wabwire said the organization had also established a primary school in Kicheko Slum to offer education opportunities to children from very poor backgrounds and a children rescue centre in Lukenya to offer accommodation to street children.
She said majority of the parents cannot afford educating their children in private schools while public ones which offer free primary education are a few and very far from their homes.
Wabwire said the war against HIV/AIDS can only be successful if livelihoods of those living in slums across the country are improved through socioeconomic support.