Generous family’s twin gift for new mother

By Allan Olingo

When Stephanie Mwite, an etiquette consultant and her husband were going about their business in the streets of Nairobi on New Year’s Eve, they stumbled upon a bleeding new mother, lying helpless by the streets.

Says Stephanie: "We were going to buy books as the children were about to resume school. As

Judy Nafuria’s desire to leave the streets not only left her pregnant, but also HIV positive [Photo: Standard]

we were driving down Haile Sellasie Avenue, my husband noticed a woman lying by the street with two babies. He stopped the car and reversed."

When they stopped, they found Judy Nafuria looking extremely weak and bleeding.

"She told us the twins were a day old and that she was a street mother. After much convincing, Judy agreed to come with us and I booked her in a hotel in Nairobi west where she stayed for three days as we thought of how to help her," says Stephanie.

The couple later decided to rent her a house in Waithaka so that the babies could start life away from the streets as their mother got medical attention at nearby clinics.

"She said she always wanted to leave the streets but had no means so we decided to rent her a house and buy her the necessary house hold items so that she can start her life anew."

While thinking of the best way to leave the streets, Nafuria fell in love with a handcart pusher who worked at Wakulima Market in Nairobi who promised to marry her and get her off the streets.

Says Nafuria: "He promised me a better life out of the street. We went to his house in Huruma and after spending a night there he changed his mind and I was back in the streets again — and pregnant."

But she didn’t get out of the streets with the twins only; she also got infected with HIV, something she found out last week during her weekly post-natal clinic visit.

"I honestly had no idea that I was HIV positive. This is because I never attended any clinic while I was pregnant and delivered my babies on my own with the help of friends. This is a turn of events that I was not prepared for."

Nafuria, who is in her late 20s, went into labour on December 31 last year and walked to a City Council clinic in Ngara area only to be turned away as she had no money.

She then went to a backstreet in Ngara area where she delivered the twins, named Mercy and Patrick. All along she thought she was carrying one child but she was shocked when she got two.

Stephanie says that Nafuria’s current abode is temporary and that together with her husband and a few friends, they are looking for somewhere permanent where she can live decently.

"Given that she is HIV positive, we want to immediately put her on ARVs and that will require an extra effort from both sides. We are appealing to well wishers to chip in and help Judy," says Stephanie.

Kept off drugs

Nafuria looks clean and well groomed for a former street person.

"I kept off drugs, prostitution and sniffing glue like the rest of my colleagues. Life in the streets is harsh and when you start indulging in such, you really have no hope left," she calmly says, adding, "I depended on begging and I used to sleep in the street opposite Kenya Polytechnic. That was my abode."

Nafuria says her mother occasionally visited her in the streets and warned her against bad company. Asked why she did not leave with her mother, she ponders for a while before saying it is because of complicated reasons.

It is not the first time Nafuria is a mother. Eight years ago, she got a child in the street and good Samaritans took the baby. "I hear that she is at a children’s home in Kayole and I am happy for her."

Although she now has a home, courtesy of generous strangers, she will not go for her daughter.

"I do not want to interfere with her life now. She is assured of food on a daily basis and also goes to school. I am helpless as you can see. I depend on well-wishers to see the next day."

dumped back

Does the twins’ father know about them?

"I honestly do not have any idea where he might be. He does not even know that I got pregnant by him. He lied to me and dumped me back in the streets. He looks as hopeless as I am," she says of the man.

Nafuria’s prayer is that her children have a good future with the best schooling.

"I do not want them in the streets. Life there is harsh and I thank God because he has taken me off the streets."

Stephanie says tests on the twins so far show they are healthy and HIV-free.

"It is a big challenge we have taken as a family but I am praying that we shall find a way of sustaining the help. I thought it wise not to give her ten shillings in the street but give her a future with her babies. It’s the least I could do," says Stephanie.

Sex industry a thriving pastime for street dwellers

Life in the streets, especially for women, is survival for the fittest in which many fo them may have to give in to sexual advances for protection and food.

According to Judy Nafuria, a former street mother, many are drawn or forced, even by family members, into the sex industry to earn a sustainable livelihood.

Says Nafuria: " Most of the women and girls living on the street solicit commercial sex work at night to eke out a living or get protection."

"We are faced with a double-edged dilemma from the authorities and the street boys who demand for sex in exchange of protection."

Even if they are not forced into sex, the majority of street girls are usually defiled, sexually abused, and raped by the older and stronger street boys.

Sexually abused

In fact, many girls living on the streets have been sexually abused. In a city where HIV/Aids is rampant, and where there are few resources for single, teenage mothers, the problems for street girls grow exponentially.

A vicious cycle of poverty is shaped when young girls, who are just children themselves, are giving birth at a tender age.

According to a study of street girls in Nairobi by the Centre for Development Studies, University College of Swansea, United Kingdom, 80 per cent of the street girls came from homes with only a single room. The girls ran away from such homes because of fear of being sexually violated by a man living in the house, the study established.

Nafuria corroborated this: "Most of my friends in the streets are there because the conditions back home are not conducive for survival. Besides poverty, there is sexual abuse."

Nafuria says many of the street girls end up getting babies, usually fathered within the street circles, which is normal.