Nyumbani

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Nyumbani

COGRI Nyumbani

Walking with Angels is proud to announce the Nyumbani Model was presented in a publication as part of the 2010 Unite for Sight Global Health Conference, held at Yale University.

Nyumbani Poster Presentation final.pdf download The Nyumbani Poster Presentation, 2010 Unite For Sight Global Health Conference, Yale University, April 17.
Jonathan Mann Nomination-Sr. Mary Owen.pdf download text of the 2010 nomination. See related blog: Monday, July 10, 2010

COGRI Nyumbani Founding Community Leaders & History:
Children Of God Relief Institute (COGRI) Nyumbani was established in 1992 by two friends and colleagues; the late Fr. D’Agostino, SJ, M.D., and Sister Mary Owens, I.B.V.M., to meet the needs of HIV+ orphans. Nyumbani, which means “home” in Kiswahili, began as a hospice orphanage for the special needs of HIV/AIDS orphans. In the early 1990‘s Sister Mary, a psychotherapist and Fr. D’Agostino, a psychiatrist and surgeon, had been working together in a clinical practice in Nairobi, serving a diverse community that included people living with the ravages of the AIDS pandemic. They noted that there were no facilities catering to the unique medical, spiritual, social and emotional needs of HIV+ children orphaned by the disease and began COGRI Nyumbani.

COGRI Nyumbani illumined a compassionate and effective model from its inception. As a team of medical and social scientists dedicated to religious service, the founders focused on ensuring that every child received; life extending and enhancing support that to helped them understood their unique preciousness, despite the hardships that have visited them in their young lives. Initial services, which still carry over today, include(d):
Medical care, focused on keeping HIV+ children healthy.
Prescriptive nutrition to strengthen the pediatric body’s immune system.
Education
Socialization with any extended family that could be found.
Spiritual health and support.

From the beginning, Nyumbani sought to garner a better understanding of HIV/AIDS as a pediatric disease. The diagnostic laboratory and clinic on campus serves as a primary health facility for the children and gathers valuable research information. In 2000 Nyumbani was the first to introduce to introduce pediatric ARV’s in Kenya. The Brazilian Embassy began assisting Nyumbani with pediatric ARVs in 2002. Today, Nyumbani leads Africa in understanding, testing and combating HIV pediatric drug resistance. Nyumbani strives to equal the standards of pediatric HIV/AIDS care in developed countries. They relentlessly strive to make routine protocols, like drug resistance testing and appropriate drug therapies, available to the 3,138 HIV+ currently children served in all Nyumbani programs. To this end, Nyumbani has recently purchased its own genetic analyzer to further test and prevent drug resistance. Walking With Angels, Inc. is among those committed to assisting Nyumbani procure the needed re-agents to enable testing.

The Nyumbani Model:
The original vision of Nyumbani home broadened to include home based community outreach through ‘Lea
Toto’ (to raise a child) centers, located in eight under served “slum” communities. The centers provide Voluntary
Community Testing (VCT) services, Prevention Transmission Mother to Child (PTMCT) education and holistic
services for the HIV+ child and their family. In rural Kitui, a 1,000 acre agrarian ‘Village‘ is growing to its
envisioned capacity of 1,000 children and 1,25 grandparents orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Currently, over 500 AIDS
affected children live and go to school on the premises, which is also a certified organic farm and hosts a
technical, vocational school.

Life for the children at Nyumbani home and Nyumbani Village mimics an African family lifestyle setting.
Children live in “family groups” in cottages, around a central green with a house mother, father or grandparent and younger boys and girls of staggered ages, all living together (adolescents are separated by gender). This village model has proven very successful for the children, who take care of each other and rely on their “mother” and each other for nurturing care and support, as they would in the community. Older children live in dorms on campus, separated by gender. Younger children attend nursery school on campus and older children attend public school. In 2004, Nyumbani won a landmark case agains the Government of Kenya that allowed HIV+ children full and equal access to public school.

Simply stated, Nyumbani delivers holistic services to vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS as they grow to adulthood and become the leaders of tomorrow. There unique approach is readily understood in the Nyumbani Home vision document below:

Partnership to date:
Walking With Angels is proud to support the ongoing work of COGRI Nyumbani through technical assistance assistance support and networking support. We provide grant writing and fundraising assistance when needed and strive to link Nyumbani with people and organizations of interest. Additionally, WWA is committed to exploring educational and market outreach opportunities and strategies that will enhance opportunities for Nyumbani children and Village residents to share their unique talents and leverage the multi sectoral and holistic services they have access to.

Objective: WWA seeks to support the leaders and programs of COGRI Nyumbani with technical assistance as requested, grant and proposal writing assistance and educational outreach to share results, information and build networks on behalf of the organization.

Outcomes to date:
Technical assistance efforts are ongoing in endeavors to enhance opportunities for Nyumbani recipients.
Jonathan Mann Global Health Award Nomination
Nyumbani Model Publication - Unite for Sight Global Health Conference, April, 2010
Nyumbani Village grant market assessment proposal efforts are underway. Technical assistance for Nyumbani Village began in May of 2003 with an income generation and agriculture strategy.
• Auction fund raising product technical assistance underway, slated to end September, 2009.
• Technical Assistance with product development and market channel linkage for kiondo bag, The Village, currently underway.
• Technical Assistance with genetic analyzer reagent funding feasibility, underway.
• Technical Assistance benchmarking Nyumbani with Dr. Raymond Awazi – sharing results.

WWA Future Plans:
Explore opportunities to purchase high quality, lower cost re-agents for virus resistance testing.
Assist Nyumbani with publishing and disseminating research and information on gathered on programs, better practices, research and results.
Enhance income generation technical assistance to expand employment opportunities in the Village and slums and work with Nyumbani to expand possibilities for testing poverty reducing strategies and tactics in the areas they work to enhance commercial possibilities.
Visit www.nyumbani.org for more information on Nyumbani