Kenya | Preview #4 for hands holding the line...
In the back garden of Jinsiangu, we pulled chairs into the square of a hedge. Anitahben Maina speaks. Their hands tell part of the story—one gripping the gold frame of the chair, the other resting across a lap. Maybe, a tension between holding on and letting go?
So much of this moment resists categories. Anitahben is intersex, and the conversation keeps undoing the neat boxes my mind once carried. Even as I stumble on pronouns, they keep speaking, reminding me that identity here cannot be reduced to labels, nor can the response to HIV.
Kenya’s HIV landscape, too, defies simplicity. The youth of Gen Z demand representation in the HIV response, not token seats filled by another generation. Services fracture when foreign funding stalls, and yet community organizations improvise, unwilling to abandon those who rely on them. Some argue for integration into public systems, others for preserving the fragile sanctuaries carved out at great risk. Sustainability is contested, not a consensus.
The picture shows only hands, but the themes are larger: stigma still cutting deep, solidarity found in fragile networks, survival hinging on choices made far away. Differing understandings of gender may be the closest metaphor for this moment—visibility for some, invisibility for others; pride in being seen, safety in passing unnoticed.
Perhaps identity, visibility, and sustainability are not just one thing, or set of things, but rather negotiated between competing visions? The hand in the frame is steady, but it points to a landscape in motion.
About this article:
- Learn more about the work of local organizations mentioned in this article.
- Part of the hands series: Previews of the people and themes at the center of the response to HIV.
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