On Sunday, October 11th, over 3,000 women gathered in downtown Nairobi, Kenya for the Nairobi Church’s Women’s Day. The event was held at the Plenary Hall of the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), the largest conference hall in East Africa.

The event included some of the most courageous sharing that a Women’s Day event in Nairobi has known. Among the people of Kenya, and also among the disciples here, there is still a great stigma attached to living with HIV/AIDS. According to the Kenyan National AIDS Control Council, 1.5 million Kenyans have died of AIDS since 1984. An estimated 200,000 become infected with HIV every year. Yet many remain fearful of admitting, accepting or talking about this reality. As such, until November 11th none of the HIV-positive disciples in Nairobi had made their status publicly known.

Pamela Kibunja

That all changed in 10 minutes of courage and strength before the 3,055 women gathered at KICC. Pamela Kibunja shared tearfully her experience of finding out, when already a disciple and engaged to be married, that she was HIV-positive. It brought to an end her hopes of being married and totally shattered her world. Treated coldly in the clinic where she was diagnosed, she feared the same reaction in the church, and allowed only a few people to know about her status. She feared that people would no longer treat her as they had and that mothers would not let her hold their babies. But the friendship and support of godly women in her life helped her through this difficult period. Ultimately, seeing that the biblical David, a man after God’s own heart, was publicly open and vulnerable about his life, Pamela decided, as a woman seeking to have the heart of God, to go public.

Janet Fleurant

Florence Ahenda followed Pamela on stage. Sharing candidly how she lost her sister to AIDS this year, she emphasized that what people living with AIDS need is friends who will be there for them unconditionally rather than blaming them for their condition, which all too often has been the case. “Love, hope and support,” said Florence, “are much more valuable than any anti-retroviral medicine.”

Friends

Janet Fleurant, GSL for East Africa, delivered the keynote speech, “What Women Really Want.” This, said Janet, is love. Using the example in the book of Mark of the woman who had bled for 12 years, Janet helped the women see the need for faith in the face of difficulty, rather than feeling rejected or abandoned by God. She called on the women to go to the Bible to grow in their faith, helping them see that it is the Bible that has the answers to life’s questions.

The response to Women’s Day 2001 was enthusiastic. One lady who was invited only the day before showed up with two of her friends and afterwards said, “I know I have found the right place.” Another woman who attended, named Caroline, had overheard Janet Fleurant inviting another lady in a crowded elevator. She followed Janet out of the elevator and asked if she could also have an invitation. Anne Auma, who leads the teen women, had 18 teens at the service. All from the same school, they packed into a van and came to KICC. Afterwards one of them said, “If we were to be given an essay to write in school I would get an ‘A’ because I would write on today: ‘The Day I Will Never Forget.’”

Women leaving the KICC