Due to an unusual skin disease, a high school teacher from Kimilili, Bungoma County, is being rejected and may lose her job.
Due to the delicate nature of her situation, we will refer to the instructor as Nancy*.
She claims that her friends have abandoned her and that even her father, who has been assisting her in receiving therapy, has given up on her.
Nancy described in an exclusive interview with Citizen Digital how she was recently rejected for a job and had her lease cancelled after it was learned that she has atopic dermatitis, a condition that results in dry, itchy, and inflammatory skin.
Nancy has accepted a position with an international school in Tanzania. She has experience teaching English and literature to high school students. Thrilled that her life might eventually improve, she traveled to Tanzania for her new gig.
On arrival, the school management discovered she had the condition, and immediately terminated her contract, on grounds that she would pose a danger to students and fellow teachers.
“My condition is not communicable, but the school terminated the contract I had signed because they felt I was a danger to students and other people around me. I had to return back home to my family,” a teary Nancy said. Since she first fell ill in 2011, when she was in Form Two, this has been the pattern in her life.
According to Nancy, the illness began in one of her joints and has since spread to much of her body, making her a target of prejudice everywhere she goes.
“I cannot get employed because of how I look. My friends have also said I have HIV, some say I am into drugs such as Marijuana. They don’t understand that this is something beyond me and I have tried as much as I can to get treatment,” she added.
Nancy has been to hospital and out, and the treatment for the disease has taken a toll on her.
She is a mother of one, and her baby’s father took off when the condition persisted. But she says she stays with her son and her siblings and has never transmitted the disease to them.
“Consultation alone takes like Ksh3,000. That’s besides drugs which are even more expensive. I am desperate for a solution to what is affecting me,” she said amid tears.