HIV/AIDS in Eastern Africa
PREACHING THE GOSPEL IN DIFFICULT TIMES

Nyanza Province, Kenya has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in Kenya and as high as anywhere else in Eastern Africa. USAID estimates that Kenya has 2.4 million AIDS orphans and that 1.2 million of them are around Lake Victoria, where the Dominicans’ house is located.

We collaborate with a local hospital, St. Monica's, & VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) programs by assisting on an ad hoc basis those who are receiving drugs and treatment with food and nutritional supplements. Because we do not have funds in any quantity, we turn away far more than we actually assist.

We have individuals whom we support, directly and completely, along with their children, living in facilities we make available locally.

Through sponsorships the Dominican Friars assist directly about 220 and indirectly at least another 50 children to attend school, mostly in boarding schools; but some in day schools.

The Dominican Friars of Eastern Africa are a Vicariate of the Province of St. Joseph Dominicans whose headquarters are in New York. The Dominicans, also known as the Order of Preachers, were founded by St. Dominic de Guzman in 1216 to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries this work has led them into all varieties of efforts to assist those to whom they preach meet their basic needs.

In Western Kenya, the “Wahubiri” (“Preachers” in Swahili) find themselves in the midst of an HIV/AIDS epidemic the consequences of which are intensified by the presence of the endemic diseases of malaria, typhoid, sickle cell disease, cholera, scabies, ring and other worms, Burkitts Lymphoma and other forms of cancer and so on. All of these are made worse by malnutrition and dehydration.

OUR MISSION is to assist those to whom we preach the Gospel ---especially, but not exclusively, children affected by HIV/AIDS and the other endemic diseases either directly or indirectly by the deaths or incapacitation of parents and family members.