Kenya AIDS Watch

Community AIDS Watch was an initiative of GROOTS Kenya to document the work of grassroots groups and their communities around the country. The project was coordinated by GROOTS Kenya in collaboration with the Huairou Commission, GROOTS International, AFRUS AIDS, and New School University in the United States. It focused on people in 12 urban and rural communities across Kenya who are responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic with or without financial support.

The overall objective of the Community AIDS Watch was to showcase community-driven, women-led approaches to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It also aimed to document the challenges communities face in doing this work and the resources they require to fight the pandemic. While working to find out from community people what they think their priorities are, the Watch also sought out factors that helped and/or hindered their ability to effectively respond to HIV/AIDS.

This publication shares the stories of how these grassroots women's groups in 12 urban and rural communities across Kenya are managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The article discusses individual grassroots programmes, including aims and objectives and success stories. It also discusses some of the challenges facing individuals and the groups. The report includes a brief description of each of the provinces that the programme is active in, and discusses the demographics of the area as well as the state of the province before and after the programme was initiated.