ARTISANS | Melissa Njeng | Judy Cherotich | Laura Sangara | Marion Mbungo
Laura Sangara*
Laura Sangara was born in Mombasa, the last child in a family of 4 children. Life was very hard, and the family was very poor. Laura had to leave school at age 13 because the family could not afford school fees, and began to work as a maid. At 17 she met a man who worked for the Agricultural Finance Commission. They were soon married. Her husband was transferred frequently from place to place, and it was soon clear to
Laura that he was sleeping around during his road trips.
In 1998, Laura’s husband started getting sick on and off. This continued for four years, until Easter in 2002 when Laura’s husband couldn’t stop coughing for three days and was admitted to the hospital in Kapsabit. He was diagnosed with TB and transferred to MTRH. However, upon arriving in Eldoret, he died. He never knew whether he was HIV-positive, but he almost certainly was.
After the funeral her husband’s brothers came and claimed all of their assets. As a childless widow, Laura was left with almost nothing. At this point she herself was starting to feel sick; her legs were frequently weak. She was constantly falling ill with malaria and typhoid, but didn’t have any money for doctors; so she self-medicated at the local pharmacy.
As her disease progressed and she became increasingly emaciated, Laura’sneighbors became suspicious. One day in 2003, she was chased out of the neighborhood by an angry mob declaring that she was HIV positive. Laura decided to confirm what the crowd had assumed. Indeed, she was HIVpositive, and the follow-up blood test revealed that her CD4 count was a dangerously low 05. Knocking on death’s door, Laura tried to return home, but was turned away by everyone in her family. They were afraid to touch her or eat with her. They knew that her husband was the one who brought the virus, but they were bitter that she had no children and that she had brought the virus to their front door. Her mother sent a message to Laura, through her brothers, saying that she was so ashamed of Laura and that when she died the family would not come and bury her.
Devastated, Laura had nowhere to go and began sleeping in the yard outside her church, waiting to die. Fortunately, she was rescued after a few days by another member of her church, a woman who owned a few apartments in town. This “good Christian neighbor” took her to an open apartment, gave Laura food, and told her that she would not be charged any rent. Laura disclosed her status to her new “landlord,” and they formed a tight friendship.
Laura was directed to AMPATH and was started immediately on ARV (antiretroviral) treatment. The drugs made her very sick for 3 weeks, then slowly she started to recover. The next time she went to the clinic for her blood test she had a CD4 of 150. Then, in 2005, the social workers at AMPATH took Laura to the new IMANI workshop. Laura started as a part-timer in the beads department and also started braiding hair for the “muzungus” (white people) at IU House in the afternoons. As she started to recover and earn money, her family felt ashamed of themselves, they started to come to her new apartment one-by-one.
Laura was identified by the IMANI managers as a hard worker and was hired as a full-time employee. Laura began making money, and was very proud when she was able to begin paying rent to her friend and landlord. But she still felt a void in her life, so when Laura heard from her neighbors that the police had found a baby boy in the neighborhood trash heap, she knew instantly what she had to do. She went to the police station, and told the police that she would care for the baby until they found the mother. The police continued to search for the biological mother, but as months passed with no word, they drafted a letter to make Laura the legal guardian.
Currently, Laura lives with her son, and works in the Clay Department at IMANI. She has completely forgiven her family, and their relationship is very good. She is trying to save up enough money to put together her own hair salon. She is proud to have a job and a son, yet she often feels sad that she gets paid every month while she knows so many others are still suffering. She would like to tell people in America that they really appreciate the donors, that they have hope to go on living, and that it feels so good to know that there are people who care for them.