Rose Nyala is a 44-year-old mother of two who has been living with HIV for the last 11 years. A teacher at Bomondo Church of God Primary School in Nyamira, Kenya, she has never regretted going public about her status.
Rose, who is on antiretroviral drugs, is in good health. Once every week, Rose holds a counselling session with Standard Seven and Eight pupils (ages 13 – 15) during their lunch break. She has devoted her life to highlighting the challenges facing AIDS orphans.
In the last 30 years, Kenya has made tremendous strides in the response to HIV and the media coverage shows it. From images of emaciated people on their death beds to HIV-positive mothers giving birth to healthy HIV-negative children; from HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing centers with a back door for clients to slip out unnoticed to VCT centers in public spaces; from people living with HIV (PLHIV) hiding their status from even their closest relatives to PLHIVs sharing their status in public including on mass media.
It has taken the unrelenting efforts of scientists, journalists, policy makers and rights activists to achieve these milestones.
To mark 30 years of HIV in Kenya and the accompanying media coverage, Internews in Kenya and the National Aids Control Council have partnered to present a month-long digital and photographic exhibition from 21 November to 20 December 2014.
Internews in Kenya has created 30 Years of HIV, an interactive digital project that explores the media coverage of the HIV epidemic in Kenya over time and marks key milestones along the way.
The project is intended to help journalists and society reflect on its own evolving understanding of the political, social, economic and human impact of HIV and whether the public information over three decades has done justice to the complexity of one of the greatest health challenges of our time.
The project includes a 3D timeline, interactive visualizations of 30 years of coverage of HIV by The Nation newspaper (the largest daily in East and Central Africa), photographic essays of people living with HIV and multimedia pieces that share the experiences of experts who are and have been on the frontline of the epidemic.
Explore 30 Years of HIV.
Internews supporters and partners for 30 Years of HIV include Kenya Ministry of Health, National Aids Control Council in Kenya, USAID and PEPFAR.
