Kenyan Orphanage, Government Reach Agreement Over Admittance of HIV-Positive Orphans to Primary Schools
A Kenyan orphanage for HIV-positive children on Thursday announced that it had reached a deal with the government and local authorities to ensure that the orphans could attend local primary schools, Reuters AlertNet reports (Reuters AlertNet, 1/8). Rev. Angelo D'Agostino, founder of the Nyumbani Home -- the oldest and largest AIDS orphanage in the country -- said that five Nairobi-area primary schools previously had refused to admit children from the orphanage despite a law providing for free primary education for all Kenyan children. D'Agostino said that the schools have made excuses for not admitting the children, often claiming that they are too full and do not have room for them. Nyumbani on Wednesday sought a court order against the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the attorney general's office to force state schools to admit HIV-positive children, Nyumbani attorney Ababu Namwamba said. A Kenyan judge on Wednesday ordered the Kenyan government and Nyumbani to develop an agreement within one day that would enable the children to be admitted to local schools (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/8). "It is a consensus agreed on between the government, the directorate of [Nairobi] education and ourselves as the applicants," Namwamba said. He added that details of the agreement would be released on Friday, according to Reuters AlertNet. Ministry of Education officials were not available for comment (Reuters AlertNet, 1/8).
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