KENYA: The talking rocks of Emuhaya

Photo: Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN

"Today, those who feared me see me as a teacher and a source of information"

EMUHAYA, 24 November 2009 (PlusNews) - Fifteen years ago, Dan On'gayi was the first person in the western Kenyan village of Emuhaya to go public with his HIV status; at the time, the reaction from his community was so vitriolic he considered taking his own life.

"In church I used to sit on my own bench and nobody dared greet me; my children were traumatised and my wife led a life of seclusion due to my HIV status," he said. "I thought I'd be better off dead than alive."

Six years later, in protest at his family's continued ill-treatment, On'gayi dug a grave and invited the community to witness him burying his family alive.

"I made a coffin and dug a large grave to bury all my family inside it because I felt the kind of discrimination they were facing from the community was too much to bear," he said.

Local government administrators got wind of his plans and stepped in, sending him for counselling. "After counselling I burnt the coffin and placed a big stone on the grave, where I wrote messages about HIV and how people can live positively with the disease," he said.

Today, On'gayi's rocks can be found all over Emuhaya, with messages in both the local Luhya language and in English. "Discrimination and stigma kill faster than HIV,” reads one. "Exclusive breast-feeding is good for your baby when you have HIV,” reads another.

"I realized I could only end the stigma I faced by fighting it myself; by writing on the stones, people get to read the messages about HIV and learn more," he said. "Today, those who feared me see me as a teacher and a source of information to others."

I realised I could only end the stigma I faced by fighting it myself...today, those who feared me see me as a teacher and a source of information

His mission is to transform the community so that others do not go through the same trauma he and his family suffered after his HIV diagnosis.

"What I realize is that people have the desire to seek services about HIV but stigma and discrimination hold them back," he said. "People tell you they know they have HIV but fear going to line up for drugs because somebody they know will see them."

When he is not scribbling his messages on rocks, he tends to a small flower garden that provides him with the income to buy paint for his rocks.

"These flowers also symbolize the bloom of life and the need to care for others," he said. "When they bloom I know life blooms not only for me but for others also."

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