Barack and Michelle Obama Promote Joint Voluntary Counseling and Testing During Kenya Visit

NOVEMBER 2008 — In a landmark moment for Kenya, Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were publicly tested for HIV during their 2006 visit to that country. As a US senator and a "son of the soil," Obama was greeted with a formal reception by the Kenyan government as well as the enthusiasm of people on the street. Many eyes were watching as an important American political figure and his wife publicly sought to learn their HIV status when no Kenyan politician had yet taken such a step.

A paper published in a recent issue of the journal Lancet suggests that joint VCT of couples can be an effective HIV prevention measure.

The Obamas were tested at the Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment, an NGO in Kisumu, western Kenya, near where Obama's father was raised, and where some relatives still reside. FHI has supported Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment in providing voluntary counseling and testing for HIV to many Kenyans, particularly couples who want to be tested together. The example the Obamas set helped reinforce the couple counseling program that is so important to stemming Kenya's HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In Nairobi, FHI helped organize a meeting for the Obamas to talk with young people about HIV prevention and AIDS. Kenya Girl Guides and representatives of youth organizations met with the Obamas in Kibera, a slum area home to more than a million people. Thousands of Kenyans, many migrant workers from Nyanza Province, lined the streets leading to the office of Carolina for Kibera, a charitable NGO affiliated with the University of North Carolina, where the young people were waiting to meet the senator.

The Obamas arrived with a group of aides and press, and Ida Odinga, wife of the now-Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Obama led a discussion with the youth on their views about HIV and AIDS, prevention issues, and their aspirations. FHI-sponsored youth organizations sent representatives: the Kenya Girl Guides included a brownie, a guide, and a ranger; the National Organization for Peer Education included Ambassadors for Change, the youth wing of the organization; and I Choose Life, an HIV-prevention NGO based in Kenya universities and colleges, sent campus activists involved in promoting abstinence and voluntary counseling and testing for HIV.

After the meeting, Obama stepped out of the small office and made a speech before a crowd of cheering Kenyans that had grown into the thousands. This was a taste of the excitement to come in the United States when Senator Obama announced his candidacy for president.

PHOTOS: (Top) Barack and Michelle Obama were tested and counseled for HIV during a 2006 visit to Kenya. Over the four months that followed, the numbers of those tested in Nyanza Province, where the Obamas were tested, are reported to have increased. Poster courtesy of Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment. (Bottom) Barack Obama visited with youth, NGO staff, and FHI/Kenya Country Director John McWilliam in Nairobi. (FHI/Kenya)