Deaconess Pamela Boehle-Silva, RN met the Reverend David Chuchu, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK) from Kisumu. Their desire was to care for families, widows and orphans (over 1 million of them) devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic crippling Kenya at the time. In Kenya, Reverend Chuchu worked with church workers called deaconesses who, at the time, were tirelessly caring for AIDS sufferers in their communities, but who had no medical background to understand the disease and how to help the suffering. They needed help from someone trained in nursing from the United States. Deaconess Pamela’s nursing skills were put to good use, and through education, helped the deaconesses understand how to best serve their parishioners.  But Pamela also found that beyond helping AIDS sufferers, there was an epidemic of stigma, shame and fear that surrounded the sick in general, separating families and communities. Something needed to change. BACK