Christiane Amanpour in Isiolo: Pepo La Tumaini

Pepo La Tumaini Jangwani (Wind of Hope in the Desert) is a CBO in Isiolo serving the needs of those infected and affected by HIV. They've been serving the Isiolo community for more than a decade, one of the first CBO's to begin addressing HIV and its root causes.

It's a controversial CBO in Isiolo Town, with plenty of people claiming that Khadija Rama, who runs the CBO, is pocketing all of the funding, though mostly it seems this is pure jealousy (since as can be seen below in the CNN video, Khadija does gain international attention) or dislike of the woman herself and the work that she is doing (the rumors often eminate from men).

There was one young boy at the deaf school who was found to be infected with HIV (this was close to when I was returning to America). The teachers at the school approached Pepo La Tumaini about the boy living there so he could receive care as he was falling ill quite often (while allowing the boy to still attend classes at the deaf school when possible--to continue learning sign language). Pepo La Tumaini said they would be wiling to accept the boy. I had asked around town if there were other opportunities for the boy to receive treatment and care, but no other CBO had funding for this, so to hear that Pepo La Tumaini was going to accept him made all of us at the school very happy. Unfortunately the story had a sad ending as the father refused to allow him to move to Pepo La Tumaini, but instead removed him from school and returned with him to the village a few hours outside of Isiolo town. This was, in effect, a death sentence.

So although every story doesn't have a happy ending, indeed most of the families Pepo La Tumaini work with don't have happy endings (how can you when dealing with HIV/AIDS?), but have, instead, small triumphs and successes, the work they do is necessary and important.

To find out more:
The homepage from Denmark: Wind of Hope
An article from IPS news: A Wind of Hope in Kenya's Desert
An article from Hope for African Children: Pepo La Tumaini Community AIDS Project
You can view some photos here: Fotosearch
View the CNN report: