U4C Center Impact Program
Empowering Women Affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya
- Kenya
In Kisumu’s urban slums, women living with and affected by HIV are lending to one another, launching businesses, and leading their communities—proof that a diagnosis is not a destiny. Since 2021, U4C and Women Arise for Positive Change (WAPC Kenya), together with Edge Philanthropy and Rotary Clubs in New Mexico and Kisumu, have made this possible through Self-Help Groups, table banking, and leadership and gender equality training built on the transformative “Imagine” methodology (Institute of Empowerment). Each woman who rises brings her group with her—building inner strength, self-worth, and financial independence, and advocating for their rights.
The Challenge:
Kisumu County has one of Kenya’s highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates, 17.4%, against a national average of about 4.9% (Kenya HIV Estimates Report, 2023). Urban slums like Manyatta and Nyalenda are hit hardest. There, women often lack access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity, gaps that deepen their vulnerability to HIV and gender-based violence, and are compounded by persistent stigma. Without sustained support, they remain trapped in cycles of poverty and illness.
The Innovation:
Rather than treating economic empowerment as a standalone goal, the program links financial independence with gender equity, health, peacebuilding, and human rights. Working in three Kisumu slums: Manyatta, Nyamasaria, and Nyalenda, U4C and WAPC Kenya implemented Self-Help Groups: peer-led circles that provide mutual support, mentorship, and collective financial collaboration.
Within their own communities, participants attend culturally and linguistically sensitive classes on growing inner peace, personal power, emotions and relationships, and the foundations of micro-enterprise development — built on the “Imagine” methodology that David Gershon and Gail Straub of the Institute for Empowerment created, which reshapes how women see themselves and their potential.
The Impact:
Since launch, this partnership has proven that healing and economic power grow together. Across three Kisumu settlements, 147 women living with and affected by HIV have been trained, and 20 Self Help Groups now provide ongoing mentorship, emotional support, and financial collaboration. Twenty women have stepped forward as peacebuilders and leaders in conflict resolution, and each year their initiatives reach more than 500 community members.
The transformation runs deep: 76% of participants report a stronger ability to address and recover from the trauma of violence. In 2025, the partnership deepened with the launch of the Uwezo Fund, a revolving table banking model through which 30 women across six groups borrow, repay, and reinvest in one another, creating a sustainable flow of capital rooted in trust where formal financial services are out of reach. These are women not only rebuilding their own lives, they are financing each other’s futures.
Looking Ahead
In 2026, we are accompanying six table banking groups, 30 women entrepreneurs, through quarterly workshops, follow-up conversations, and capacity building, working hand in hand with our local partner on the ground in Kisumu.
In Kisumu, a small loan doesn’t stop with one woman, it circles through her whole group. Your support keeps that capital, and that confidence, moving.
And it reaches far beyond her home.
This movement is built on a simple truth: when one woman is supported, the impact doesn’t stop with her. It never does. It extends into her children, her neighbors, her community, into families, communities, and futures none of us will fully see, but all of us can help shape.
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