By Mbarara Rise |
Anatalie a transgender woman who was born in the Arua district of eastern Uganda, but now residing in Kisoro district, an alpine region that stretches below Rwanda country, She grew up with 4 sisters and 2 younger brothers. Like many children, she walked 3 hours from her home to school every day. By the time she completed senior four (Ugandan education) it looked like this would be the end of her schooling. It took some convincing her parents to allow her to move to Mbarara in western Uganda where she rented a small room and started a search for a job to survival, pay bills and take care of her parents.
Anatalie’s dream was to become a doctor. She would have liked to enroll in college to earn a MBB degree, however this was way beyond her parents’ means and capacity to afford school fees. Rather than give up on her dream she was determined to find another, more affordable path but all in vain. That’s when she gave up o her dream and started sex worker as a means of employment to be able to pay house bills and other important needs.
Her job (sex work) have alot of challenges like, HIV/AIDS infections, Killings, arrest by the police, mob justice attack, and many more. Geeta approached us at Mbarara rise Foundation for HIV and Testing, counseling support, when we found out that she was HIV negative, we enrolled her on PrEP to enable her avoid HIV infections. Through a friend she heard about a our PrEP campaign and she has been able to be one of our change agents, she sensitizes the community on possible ways to fight HIV.
Anatalie still dreams of one day earning a Bachelor of Public Health degree. In the meantime she took part in our peer education program, a program that equips young motivated LGBTQ with health care peer skills to be social change agents in rural Uganda and she will continue to use her peer skills in service to her community.
Mbarara Rise foundation is back breaking work. Tending to buffaloes, goats and chickens, carrying on advocacy, sensitization to fight and end HIV/AIDS 2030. with your support, we are making a huge success. We served 182 most exposed LGBTQ people from villages close and far. As one of the volunteers commented at the end of the day: “Our clients seem very happy with the PrEP treatment and a happy for the services we offer”!
Please Stay Safe Over the COVID 19.
By Mbarara Rise | Organization
By Mbarara Rise |
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