Blazing the trail for an Aids free Africa

By Andnetwork .com

May 25, 2006

Mutungi travels from Continent to continent to give talks on a subject that has become his passion, HIV/Aids. He is currently the CEO of I Choose Life Africa (ICL), which is the leading HIV/Aids peer education programme in the universities, the only one operating in both public and private universities.

Fascination with UFOs and extraterrestrial beings, not forgetting watching thrillers and military movies, describes in part some of the things that make 44-year-old Mike Mutungi tick.

Some of his fondest memories of his campus days in Nairobi University in the 1980s, was spending nights in the biting cold on the roof of the engineering block while gazing through a telescope and keeping a close watch on the movement of the stars.

" It was tough in college because as part of my engineering course we had to do a class in astronomy in which we had to use certain calculations to ascertain when a particular star would pass by. Then we had to sit in the cold and wait for it to happen in the wee hours of the morning. If you were unfortunate and a cloud covered the star at that particular moment, you had to come and spend yet another night," He recalls with a hearty laugh.

All the while, the ambitious engineering student held fast to his childhood dream. " I had a dream to work with (National Aeronautical and Space Administration) NASA in the United States, I admired Albert Einstein, and had a compelling curiosity about life in outer space. I had read scores of books on the subject from cover to cover," he says.

But interestingly, today Mutungi travels from Continent to continent to give talks on a subject that has become his passion, HIV/Aids. He is currently the CEO of I Choose Life Africa (ICL), which is the leading HIV/Aids peer education programme in the universities, the only one operating in both public and private universities.

In October 2004 he was invited to speak on HIV/Aids being a matter of education at a UNESCO conference in Bujumbura in Burundi, and the next month he flew to Canada where he gave a talk in Winnipeg, and taught a class in the University of Manitoba. He later was invited to the US where he held discussions on how to respond to HIV/Aids in Africa in Kansas City, and gave a talk in Philadelphia (USA) as well. He gave a Life Skills Curriculum Presentation at a USAID forum in ICIPE in Nairobi in November 2005. In January this year, he travelled to Kampala as part of the team developing a strategic plan for East African countries. And most recently in March he was invited to give a talk on the dignity and value of every person with regard to HIV/Aids in Bangkok, Thailand.

He has also facilitated numerous sessions on HIV/related topics in various towns in Kenya. He has even written an HIV/Aids handbook titled ‘I Choose Life for myself and those I love,’ which is used in ICL training.

Members of ICL are easy to spot on campus in striking blue T-shirts, upbeat, fun loving and energetic. Any student who has gone through their training programme has a mission to simply tell other students about the dangers of Aids and to allow them to make informed decisions especially concerning sex.

ICL passes their message in ways that are both eccentric and flamboyant. Crazy Olympics, cultural festivals, music concerts featuring some of Kenya’s top artists like Longombas, Nameless, comedians, fashion shows, talent searches, rugby tournaments and salsa classes are just a few. Not forgetting outdoor camps, poetry, and various competitions. " We try to package information on HIV/Aids in the mosy exciting way possible because we target students who have lots of energy, but need to hear the message so that they can make informed decisions," says Kendi Muriungi, the public relations officer of ICL. Their peer education program has reached over 40,000 students to date.

The switch Mutungi made from engineering to HIV/Aids came as a result of extensive leadership work he had been involved in with students because of his love of working with the youth.

Born in Misyani village in Kangundo, he studied at Starehe Boys Centre up to A-level before joining Nairobi University. " After finishing campus, I went to work with the Ministry of Roads. 

Tragedy struck when he lost two sisters and one brother who were all in their 30s to HIV/Aids, at a time when not too much was known about it. Later, their spouses died as well. He recalls that one of his sisters didn’t know what she was suffering from at the time and his brother was in serious denial, even when he lost his job. He could not afford the medication so he deteriorated very fast.

This thrust Mutungi into the mysterious world of HIV/Aids. "There was not much that one could read about to understand what it was all about. The only material available was difficult to understand, and full of medical jargon."

After working with the ministry of roads for three years, he joined The Navigators because he enjoyed working with the youth, and was put in charge of the students ministry department. "It was while I was working with the university students that I came across a survey carried out by The Navigators examining the critical issues that affect university students which were HIV/Aids, finances and music. I was shocked to discover that at the time, out of every 100 students studying in the university, 17 of them would die within the next five to 10 years." Having worked with the students, he also found that there was very little taking place in the campuses in terms of educating the students about HIV/Aids. It is at that point that he decided that he wanted to address this matter seriously. "I realized that HIV was killing off the cream of our country," he said emphatically.

He went on to develop a programme in which he would simplify information about HIV/Aids and give it to university students in a way that was captivating and interesting, yet highly informative. "The initial objective was never to start an organisation, but just to tell students about it so that they could make informed decisions," Mutungi says.

Together with friends, he initiated a training programme where students would be trained to teach others about HIV/Aids and the response was overwhelming. "Soon, we had over 600 students asking to be trained yet we could only take seventy at a go. We realised that we needed to get organised and to approach people and organisations for funding," says Mutungi.

And today it has grown into the leading HIV/AIDS behavioural Change Peer Educational programme in Kenyan universities.

It was launched in 2002 and was later recommended to all the Universities by the Commission of Higher Education. In just over two and a half years they have trained 42 Trainer of Trainers and 955 University students Peer Educators in University Of Nairobi, (UON), Kenyatta University (KU), and Daystar Universities, reaching over 3000 students. They are making plans to expand it into Uganda, Cote D’Voire, Rwanda, Tanzania and Congo. Last month, they published the findings from a survey at Kenyatta University on ICL’s impact over the last two years in a dissemination report.

Today, Mutungi sees himself playing the role of a football team captain. "I have put my team together and I am amazed at what all the people working at ICL are doing and the passion they have for their work."

His vision? "Nothing less than to have an Aids free Africa, which I know is a monumental challenge which we are equal to."

 By Margaret Oganda

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