Stop the Cycle of HIV: Support Women and Children!

“My name is Rachel (not real name), I used to live with jjajja in Salaama but I now live at FoodStep Uganda in Entebbe. I am not certain of my age because I have never celebrated any birthday ever, but jjajja says I am about 11 years old, that is all. She never tells when I was born, possibly because she does not remember. 

Jjajja and I did not have enough food, and we never used to eat well, basically, it was posho with beans or silverfish “mukene” which was not always sufficient. Sometimes we went hungry for days and yet we were on daily medication. It would get very depressing when we did not have food to eat. This caused my Viral load to go up hence never suppressing making it easy for me to get many illnesses and infections. In July 2020, I was not well which led to admission for over two weeks. I thought I was going to die.

The health workers at the clinic got interested in why I was not getting discharged from the centre. Then came aunty Winnie (a pharmacy attendant) and Peace (a peer educator) who wanted to get to the bottom and realised I wasn't having enough food and took it upon themselves to make sure I ate the right food during my stay at the centre. They then linked me to Foodstep Uganda, a home where I can get the health and physical guidance to live a healthy life. At Foodstep Uganda they will be able to provide the services I need because my grandmother cannot.

After consulting my grandmother and gaining consent for the support, I officially joined Food Steps Uganda on the 30^th of July 2020.

At Food Steps Uganda, I have met so many people, aunty Aisha, aunty Annette, papa, mama. Everyone is nice, friendly and we even eat well. The food is really nice all the time, especially my favourite, matooke and rice. The best part is the home-schooling part and I love it a lot, I know that if school begins, I will be able to join school since I can at least write my name.” 

Ever since Rachel joined FoodStep Uganda, she is happy and healthy. She takes her medication without any fear of hunger.  When she came back to the clinic, the girl who could barely answer to a simple question like “How are you?'' is now ready to respond to all questions with a smile on her face.

Joy (not real name) is a 19-year-old peer educator working at Alive Medical Services. She is a young lady who was miraculously chosen by a foreign lady (Natalie) in 2007 during one of her visits in prisons where she used to explore and engage with street children. On this specific visit, Natalie noticed a group of young children in the prisons cell and felt drawn to Joy, she asked for her file and any form of information they had on her. She also asked about the procedure it would take for her to take Joy into her care.

Joy, 8 years old at the time didn’t know anything about her family nor had she heard from or of her parents and since there was no one to claim her, the process for Natalie to become her legal guardian was a successful one, she finally got a family.

After a series of being sick and sessions at Mulago hospital, Joy and her new foster mother Natalie did not know exactly what was happening with her health. She decided to consult a friend who referred her to Alive Medical Services, she was looking forward to getting free treatment at AMS.  Joy received several tests, the first one being an HIV test which confirmed she was HIV positive and the reason why she was getting ill more often. Joy was then started on ARVS.

She continued to take her medication all through school until high school when she stopped because she was confused about why she should take medicine indefinitely. After a while, she started getting sick because of not taking her medication.

 “In my high school days, we learned about STIs where the teacher mentioned most of the signs and symptoms of HIV and I happened to have one physical sign, the skin rash,” Joy sadly said.

Joy had an irritating skin rash and her fellow students saw her taking medication daily, which led them to become suspicious of what illness she might have, making her even more uncomfortable. She was now even more depressed than usual and was finally sent home to seek medical attention as her illness seemed to be getting worse. Once home, she confided in her foster mother about her insecurities, this paved way for them to return to AMS as she realised it was time to disclose to Joy the actual status of her health.

At AMS she met with Dr Elizabeth who was very professional at handling her case, she explained to her what it meant to be HIV positive and why she had been told to take her medication, the benefits of taking it more effectively. She remembers the first weeks being the toughest, but with the support from her foster mother, she was able to cope.

AMS has become more than the family, friends, and parents she has ever wished to have. “AMS embraces you the way you are, at some facilities, you go pick your drugs and that’s it. The rest is usually not their business”. Joy acknowledges.

Joy is glad she was chosen among the young people at the centre to train and become a peer educator at AMS, and this is giving her plenty of opportunities like sharing her story, attending summits, conferences as well as visiting other facilities, being able to interact with other peers on their daily challenges. Most of all she has become more confident and is not lost in the self-stigma that had built up during her high school days. She is very hardworking, easy to talk to with a dream to improve her life and grab onto future opportunities.

Joy is now a peer network coordinator who is using her story and life experiences to change lives and she is grateful to AMS staff for the endless support and unconditional love with all adequate services available all the time. She wants to work so hard and facilitate herself for further education in Public health so that she can help people who have gone through the same experience. She also wants to own an orphanage for abandoned children so she can be able to give back to the community especially those on the streets.