Alison Costain, an aid worker in Kenya, is pictured Friday at the Eldridge Hotel. Costain is in Kansas trying to generate support for Comfort the Children International, a nonprofit organization started by Lawrence native Zane Wilemon.

The recent violence in Kenya made a bad situation worse for the African nation’s people, an international aid worker said Friday during a visit to Lawrence.

“People say things have calmed, but they are not peaceful,” said Alison Costain, director of Kenya operations for Comfort the Children International.

“So much of the political strife in Kenya is about power,” she said. “It’s not about helping ordinary people. It makes me angry.”

Violence in Kenya erupted this year over disputed presidential elections. There are still 300,000 displaced Kenyans in Red Cross camps, Costain said. She helped provide aid to 1,500 of them while working in the town of Maai Mahiu. Owners of small shops saw their homes and businesses burned, she said. That violence has discouraged many Kenyans who were happy to take part in the election.

“People are saying they aren’t going to vote again,” Costain said.

CTC was started in 2003 by the Rev. Zane Wilemon, a Lawrence native who now is an Episcopal priest in California. Costain, from Great Britain, has known Wilemon for several years. She has been in Kenya the last eight months.

Costain works on projects designed to help AIDS patients and those who are HIV positive. Maai Mahiu is on the so-called AIDS Highway. It is a noted stop for truckers and home for many prostitutes. About six in 10 people out of a population of 30,000 are estimated to be HIV positive, Costain said.

An American charity has provided free HIV and AIDS drugs but residents must take an expensive $10 round-trip bus ride to get them at the local hospital, Costain said. The drugs are supposed to be taken while eating nutritious meals. Many who need the drugs don’t have the money or resources to plant their own vegetables, she said. CTC is trying to get a direct-route, paved road to the hospital.

“It’s not just about cash,” Costain said. “Nothing is ever simple. Everything in Africa is complicated.”

CTC started a day care for children and is trying to organize a trash collection service. Costain works with two non-African volunteers and five or six Kenyans at CTC. Others arrive to provide temporary service.

Costain is in Kansas to encourage financial and services support for CTC. Today she meets with Episcopalians who have been to Kenya and others who will go there this summer. She will be in Wichita on Sunday meeting with people involved with the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, CTC and the Anglican Church of Kenya. Many Kansas churches already support CTC, she said.

Costain, 37, never goes out at night. A local warrior armed with a bow and poison-tipped arrows guards her residence.

“You are always on alert,” she said.