The Throwaways

I met Ruth and Priscka at Women Fighting Aids (WOFAK) in Kenya, one of the country’s first HIV advocacy organizations. Their Nairobi offices are in a modest, two-story building under the shadow of an imposing Baptist church next door. There could hardly be so odd a pair: Priscka was a tiny, bony figure who walked with a pronounced limp, her small frame jarred by each step she took. Ruth was a tall, curvaceous woman with an impressive mound of braided hair, who waltzed through WOFAK’s door, high fiving staff members as she passed. Friendships are usually born of common circumstance. For Ruth and Priscka, it was one born from misfortune.

“Doc told me I was HIV positive, and no reason to get more children,” Ruth told me. Ruth had been a fruit vendor, but she was fired when her boss found out she was HIV positive. Ruth had dreamed of having five children, but the miscarriage of her third child changed that. She was hospitalized after the miscarriage, and her doctors told her she needed surgery. She assumed it was...