Kenyan minister visits partners in Bloomington

At a coffee hour discussion at the Leo R. Dowling International Center Friday, guest speaker Rev. Reuben Keya Lubanga of Kenya gave his audience a glimpse into the realities of life half a world away in a rural region hundreds of miles from the modern capital city of Nairobi.\nLubanga spoke of villages without telephone lines, paved roads or a single library. Mostly, he told of the disease he said is destroying his homeland. He said an estimated 60 percent of residents in some rural districts are infected with HIV.\n"It is like we are living in two worlds," Lubanga said, referring to the cultural barrier between modern and antiquated views about HIV. He said at a time when technology and research is moving toward understanding the disease, some villagers still believe the virus is just a "bad omen" or a spiritual curse, he said.\nAn audience of 30 gathered to hear Lubanga discuss IU's Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers in partnership with the Kenyan nongovernmental organization Inter-Community Development Involvement. The group works to educate western Kenyan villagers on the transmission and prevention of HIV. \nLubanga said this unusual alliance began when he was a seminary student in Kenya. Part of the Christian tradition, he explained, is to take up a mission of faith. Lubanga said his realization of the devastation AIDS was causing in his community made his personal mission clear.\nHe obtained AIDS educational materials, including posters and a video, and set out to nearby villages. Because he didn't have a car, Lubanga walked as far as six to 10 miles to spread his message of prevention. Because he couldn't assume the villages would have a television for him to use, he used a large wheelbarrow to cart his own television -- and a generator to power it.\nMeanwhile in Bloomington, students Hank Selke and Philip Roessler were studying international affairs and reading in the New York Times about the African AIDS crisis. The two were so affected by what they learned that they decided they somehow needed to get involved in the fight against the disease.\n"(What I found) really opened my eyes," said Roessler, now a senior. "I decided, 'No matter how small, I'm going to do something.'"\nSelke and Roessler said they found a similar cause in the Kenyan program, and in 1998 they formed Outreach Kenya as a way for students to help fight AIDS. Each summer a small group of IU students has traveled to Kenya to spend their summers helping Lubanga spread the word about the disease.\nWhile in Kenya, the students lived with Lubanga, his wife, Betty, and their young children. Lubanga calls his student volunteers sons and daughters as well.\nStudents went to nearby villages to make presentations anywhere people would listen. With Lubanga translating into Swahili as necessary, the students spoke, handed out pamphlets and showed educational videos; they discussed the nature of the disease and safer sex as a preventative measure.\nIt was on the latter topic that they ran into major opposition.\n"The Jesuit church was wary of me speaking on AIDS because it is a sexually transmitted disease. They thought it would encourage promiscuity," Lubanga said. "It's frustrating knowing that 75 percent of the congregation is sexually active but doesn't know how to practice safe sex."\nLubanga explained that one of the main problems is the community's denial about the disease. There is a belief, he said, that a person's spirit will come back and guard over the community after his death. No one wants to admit that someone might have died of AIDS-related illness because the person's spirit would be tarnished. Lubanga said some villagers also believe a witch doctor is a viable answer to the problem.\nAlthough the biggest obstacles are cultural, funding at the grass-roots level is also a definite problem, Lubanga said.\nAlthough AIDS funding exists, Lubanga said it is not used correctly.\n"The funding goes to sponsoring seminars in fancy hotels for (representatives and officials) who don't have a minute to come back home," to use what they've learned, Lubanga said.\nDespite a lack of funding (the group was finally able to trade in the wheelbarrow for a used Isuzu Trooper -- with 250,000 miles on it -- last year) and the various social barriers, Lubanga said he knows his efforts have been successful. By the end of 1999, Lubanga estimated the program had reached more than 15,000 people.\n"It's still something that needs a lot of support," he said. \nWhen AIDS awareness groups or women's groups sprout up in villages where he's spoken, Lubanga said, he knows what he's doing has made a difference.\nJunior Katie Dillard is a member of Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers and participated in the summer 2000 trip. Dillard said she was impressed with how welcoming most of the villagers were.\n"One time I went into a bank and a guy asked me if I was with Rev. Lubanga's group. I said yes, and he said how thankful he was and asked me over for dinner."\nJunior Alanna Galati also took part in the summer 2000 trip. She said the experience goes beyond a simple desire to help others.\n"I feel a moral obligation," Galati said. "I just feel like they need my help the only way for me to be able to live my life and not feel guilty is for me to go there and do this."\nLubanga will be at IU for two more weeks and will visit cities on the East coast before returning to Kenya.