There is a saying in Kibera that words travel fast, the wind carries your thoughts to a place of concern, where a quiet revolution is brewing, not one of violence but of resilience, meet the power women of kibera, their fingers a blur and hearts full of desires as they weave colorful stories, stories not just of intricate patterns but of courage, community and a fierce fight against Stigma, defying stereotypes and stitching together a brighter future, one loom at a time, transforming struggles into strength, confronting misconceptions, eyes glinting with defiance while rewriting their own narratives, but challenging deeply ingrained stigma that HIV/AIDS is not the end of life, When 14 women come together to sensitize the community and create awareness against a sensitive and often avoided topic they are not only sewing from threads of fear but from a vibrant thread of hope, they carry their own stories to torch the light of an entire community.

  63 year old Hellen Moraa remembers when she was a young woman and contracted HIV, it was tough, the stigma that came with this made her always want to hide and isolate. In 2004 when I went to the local clinic I met 14 incredible positive women, who were trying to find a community to sensitize and raise awareness against HIV/AIDs stigmatization. It should not be the end of life when you contract this disease, this was our truth and the gospel we preached. We started by saving 10 shillings which accumulated to 3000 shillings monthly, with this money we decided to start a program POWER WOMEN GROUP and also put up a community centre where we learnt skills to take care of ourselves and also started training other young positive single mothers, however we had to end the program because our funder went broke during COVID-19 pandemic. We have been able to sustain this centre and ourselves through what we make and sell.

Today we celebrate women for their existence but I want the world to celebrate us for our resilience, to understand that they can invest in women to self sustain and socially impact their immediate community. Yes and we still want to do more, praying we get partnerships to help start and continue with our outreach programs. I am an old woman who has grown and is growing to the realization that women deserve opportunities to create, we are naturally gifted to nurture.