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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| January 31, 2004 |
Asunta Wagura "A Will from a Mother to Her Son:
Preparing for Death" |
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| Ms. Asunta Wagura speaks of the importance of "living positively" |
Ms. Asunta Wagura, founder and leader of Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA), joined Peace Boat from Mombasa, Kenya, to Cape Town, South Africa along with her only son, Peter. KENWA is a grassroots organization formed and run by women living with HIV/AIDS. It welcomes any woman who is HIV positive regardless of her race, culture, religion, or social status. Ms. Wagura started KENWA in 1993 along with four HIV infected women who had been rejected by their families because of their HIV status.
A decade after its establishment, the organization, which initially started as a meeting group for experience sharing and consolation, has a membership of approximately 3000 HIV positive women as well as 800 orphans. KENWA aims to empower women to challenge the stigma and isolation they are subjected to; advocate for their rights and those of their children; support one another psychologically and materially; share experiences and encourage one another; and develop coping strategies.
In her final lecture onboard, "A Will from a Mother to Her Son: Preparing for Death," Ms. Wagura introduced the audience to one of the many programs KENWA offers to its members with children: making a memory book to be left to their children after their death. By showing her handmade memory book dedicated to her eight-year-old son Peter, she explained the purpose of making one and how to do it. The book starts with a family tree and pictures that describe the origins of her family, followed by handwritten notes explaining in detail her life history before and after she became an HIV/AIDS activist. |
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| Ms. Asunta Wagura and her son Peter |
Ms. Wagura encourages members of her organization to make memory books so that their children will remember them as mothers who lived their life to the fullest rather than remembering their AIDS-related deaths. The message she wants to get across to the members of KENWA through the memory book project is that we can change the focus of our lives from negative to positive. Ms. Wagura demonstrated to the audience with her positive attitude is that accepting death and preparing for the eventual end is not focusing on dying but is rather about focusing on life, and living for each and every moment.
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