I met women and girls in Kenya affected by HIV – this is how to empower them

Ultimately, our nation’s commitment to gender equality is about ensuring women like the ones I met are able to control their health, education and future, writes Layla Moran MP

The deeply patriarchal society in Kenya means that young women and girls face other significant barriers to their right to health (Layla Moran)

Abigail’s mum contracted HIV from her second husband. She already had three children with her first husband, all of which were HIV-free. It wasn’t until she came to Ngong Sub-County Hospital, about an hour outside of Nairobi, that she understood the risks to her baby.

It was a “mentor mother” – a community health worker also living with HIV – who supported her through her pregnancy and informed her about mother-to-child transmission of HIV. They also helped her understand how damaging the stigma of HIV, even within families, can still be.

She wouldn’t want her new baby to be the only child in her family living with HIV, and as a result she began taking her antiretrovirals to suppress the virus in her body to the point it became undetectable and could no longer be transmitted. As such, little Abigail was born HIV-free.