Transform the Lives of 13000 HIV-Positive Ugandans

In 2012, after a long time of being bedridden and weight loss, Santa (not real name) was referred by a friend to Alive Medical Services(AMS) to get tested for HIV. She decided to come to the clinic just to impress her friend, as she knew her friend was already in care (enrolled on ART) and wasn’t worried about anything concerning HIV, Santa thought she was HIV negative. To her surprise, she tested HIV positive and it was a devastating situation because she had just tested in the previous 6 months and she was confirmed HIV negative.

“A lot of questions were in my mind because by that time I had one child and I was expecting another, so I was wondering who I will leave my children with when I die? How am I going to tell my husband about everything?” She thought discordancy was impossible.

Since she was expecting, she was immediately enrolled in care and started taking antenatal appointments as she was explained to that she could actually have a safe baby if she followed the doctor’s instructions. The situation was tough for her as so many thoughts of taking daily medication on time while you are pregnant, but Santa stood strong while she thought about the life of her children by then and this encouraged her to hold on to that. “After all God knows when I’ll die” She smiled.

In a long time of a discordance relationship, Santa’s spouse goes ahead and shares with one of their family friends how they are living as discordant. She eventually took him away from her. Santa got another phase of stress that almost took her down while she was pregnant again with her third child. She then met Nurse Edith, a nurse at Alive Medical Services in charge of antenatal care during her antenatal appointment. “Nurse Edith got concerned about how a pregnant woman looked weightless and stressed, so I was forced to share the situation. Nurse Edith gave me the best advice any married woman would have loved to hear.” Her advice made her strong that she came to realize she is a normal human being and different scenarios happen to people irrespective of their status.

Today Santa is a mother of 3 children who are HIV negative of whom the third is 4 months and is currently enrolled in the EID/EMTCT section and the first PCR results are negative and she says if she didn’t meet the caring, loving and concerned AMS staff that treats clients very well, maybe she wouldn’t be around today.

Santa thanks to the whole AMS team for not despising any clients, they don’t bark at them and the facility is always clean. “Most of us having nothing much to offer and give in return, tell the team and everyone who plays a role in making a change in our community that we are grateful and thank you a lot.”