Dr. Karambu Ringera: Peacemaker

When I first met Dr.Karambu Ringera (or Dr. K as everyone calls her) this summer, she told me the story of a promise. In 2004, a Kenyan woman named Beatrice was dying of AIDS and looking for Dr. K. Beatrice was in the final stages of the disease, and she worried over the fate of her young son, Vincent. Who would take care of him? Who would be sure he got an education? Who could keep him safe and free from violence? Who could end the cycle of poverty that enveloped his young life? Beatrice asked Dr. K to promise that she would do these things.

Dr. K is a well-respected and highly educated leader in her village of Meru, Kenya. She graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Education degree, holds a Masters Degree from Natal University in South Africa, and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver. Dr. K is also a compassionate, committed, and formidable force for change. Over the course of the last decade, Dr. K kept her promise to Beatrice by helping Vincent and those who are suffering like Beatrice to help themselves. She organized the women affected by HIV/AIDS in her village and the surrounding villages into a collective that does everything from offering emotional support to one another to creating income-generating activities. Dr. K registered the organization with the Kenyan government to ensure the women get the recognition and aid they deserved. Then, she founded International Peace Initiatives (IPI).

IPI is an NGO with a global network committed to mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and violence, particularly as they affect the lives of women and children. In 2004, it was not uncommon for a woman dying of AIDS in Kenya to take her own life and the lives of her children out of fear and desperation. Today, Dr. K’s Amani Home (“amani” means “peace” in Swahili) houses orphaned and vulnerable children whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS, poverty, and violence. The children stay close to their villages and extended families, living and learning within a community of peace.

Dr. K believes that peace is not merely the absence of war. Peace includes access to the resources necessary to meet one’s basic needs: education, health care, infrastructure, and water. The Amani Home is designed to be self-sustaining while teaching children life skills, providing them shelter, food from the nearby Tiriji Ecocenter, and the opportunity to graduate from the poly-technical school on site. Dr. K states that “education is the one vaccine that we need to free people, especially women and children, from all the thing that bind them.” By educating and empowering these women and children, Dr. K believes “they can become the hope they’ve been looking for.”

I had the honor of working alongside Dr. K this summer, building and working at the Amani House in Meru, Kenya. Dr. K never stops thinking of ways to raise the health, economic, and social conditions for her fellow Kenyans, to make IPI more self-sustainable, and to promote peace and global citizenship. She sat on the committee that wrote Kenya’s newest Constitution, and she is currently completing a one year fellowship at the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Arizona.

On my last day in Kenya, I forced myself to embed her rich voice, infectious smile, and transcendent optimism in my memory. She is a powerful image for change, community, and peace. I promised myself I would see Dr. K again. I have learned about the power held in a promise from her. Dr. Karambu Ringera is the most effective peacemaker I have ever met.