Practices of Relatedness and the Re-Invention of duol as a Network of Care for Orphans and Widows in Western Kenya

Abstract

Globally, the HIV/AIDS pandemic (UNICEF/UNAIDS 1999) has brought increased mortality for young adults, while many children have been orphaned and made vulnerable (Poonawala and Cantor 1991; Barnett and Blaikie 1992). A study carried out in Uganda confirms that the effects of HIV/AIDS usually spread beyond the households where parents or breadwinners die (Barnett and Blaikie 1992: 86-109). The increasing number of orphans also makes other children vulnerable because their share of available resources is reduced in households that accommodate orphans. In addition, some of these children are living with ailing widows, in most cases their surviving mothers, who are equally in need of support. An emergent problem is the lack of adequate support within the extended family network for those affected (see, for example, Ankrah 1993). In Kenya, the number of young adult deaths due to HIV/ AIDS was expected to increase to 300,000 annually by the year 2005 (NASCOP 1998). The prevalence of the pandemic has been reported as high and continuing to grow in western Kenya, especially in areas immediately north and south of Lake Victoria and along the road corridor to Nairobi (Republic of Kenya/UNDP 1999: 49). According to an estimate made by Hunter and Williamson in 2000, by 2005 there would be approximately one and a half million orphaned children in Kenya. This has been happening at a time when pre-existing forms of family solidarity, mainly rooted in extended family relations, are being eroded by a combination of internal and external forces of social change (Kayongo-Male and Onyango 1984; Ankrah 1993; Kilbride and Kilbride 1993). Available resources for care at the community and national levels can no longer match the increasing number of orphans and widows.