(7 Jan 2004) ALL TOKO MATERIAL

SHOTLIST
1. HIV positive students getting off school bus
2. Two shots of Roman Catholic priest Reverend Angelo D'Agostino writing
3. Hand writing
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Reverend Angelo D'Agostino, Founder Nyumbani orphanage
"We've been having trouble getting our children into schools. We hope that the government will be able to enforce the children going to school by our action, by bringing it to court, getting a court decision which will then lead hopefully to a law."
4. Children getting off bus
5. Children playing

STORYLINE

Kenya's oldest and largest AIDS orphanage on Wednesday plans to seek a court order to force state schools to admit children infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The Nyumbani home, which receives most of its funding from groups in the United States, will seek the order against the Ministry of Education and the Attorney General's office in the Nairobi High Court.

Reverend Angelo D'Agostino, the Roman Catholic priest who founded Nyumbani, claims five primary schools in the capital refused to admit children from the orphanage because they are HIV-positive - despite the enactment of a law that provides for free primary education for all Kenyan children.

A senior education ministry official on Tuesday said it was the government's policy to give "equitable and nondiscriminatory access to education" and that no child was to be denied access on the basis of health, including HIV status.

He said he had written to Nyumbani asking for the names of the schools that denied admission to the orphans but had not received a reply.

The promise of free primary education was one of the key election pledges of an opposition alliance that won historic elections in December 2002.

Since taking office, President Mwai Kibaki's government has cited the provision of free primary schooling as one of its main successes.

Kibaki has also pledged to lead the battle against AIDS, a disease that he said kills 400 people a day in the East African nation.

Some 13 percent of Kenya's 30 (M) million people are infected with HIV.

D'Agostino, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, says he doesn't blame the government for the problem.

Rather, he says, it is teachers and parents who don't want HIV-infected children in school, which means the answer is in education.

Former President Daniel Arap Moi declared AIDS a national disaster in 1999, but his government did little to create public awareness about the deadly disease.

HIV-positive Kenyans are still stigmatised and few openly admit to being infected with the virus.

Nyumbani, which opened 11 years ago, currently looks after 93 boys and girls who have been orphaned and are HIV-positive.

About 30 of the children attend a private primary school which costs the orphanage around 300 US dollars per pupil each term.

Another 14 children are ready to begin primary school, but the orphanage does not have the funds to pay for them to attend the private school, according to D'Agostino.

Only one of the orphans attends secondary school and he had to move schools after being bullied, the priest added.

Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть