AFOD Uganda with funding from Infectious Disease Institute plays a unique role in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Adjumani District-West Nile Region-Uganda. Our community based approaches of; door to door home based counseling and refill of stable clients are helping to increase the number of HIV clients enrolled and retained in care and increased adherence to treatment leading to non-suppressed clients able to suppress.
In our psychosocial support follow up, a client shares her story, “I am Kinyaa Margret, 35yrs old from Melijo village, Adjumani District. In 2012, I tested HIV positive from Adjumani mission health center but denied the results simply because l didn’t believe it was true. I later decided to carry out another test in Adjumani Hospital thinking maybe the earlier test from the health center was not correct. Unfortunately from the hospital too, the results was confirmed to be positive. “I felt sad to know that I was HIV positive, I didn’t expect it” Says Margret”.
Being married, the hardest part was how to break the news to my husband, guilt engulfed me as l was eager to know his reaction. I finally decided to open up to my husband who later took an HIV test and the result was negative. I wondered how that was possible but it made me happy knowing he was negative. I asked how he felt about my results, he simply said, “There is nothing I can do about it because whether you are positive or negative, we will still die at some point in life”
After sometime, l was visited by a young lady from AFOD Uganda who was following up HIV clients in the communities. On sharing my plight with her, she explained to me about HIV/AIDS and shared messages on discordant couples. I was counselled together with my husband, we both came to understand that discordant couples exist and we were taught how to maintain and protect each other. I started taking ARVs and l was encouraged to accept my situation. With time I opened up to all my family members about my status and they understood my condition and this made me happy, “until now no one segregates against me in the family, we all live normally”. Adds Margret.
Because of my determination to live a more healthy life, AFOD enrolled me as an expert client in Bira health center where l look out for fellow HIV positive clients and encourage them to regularly take their ARVs, do follow ups for those who stopped coming for treatment and most of all sensitize others on how to live positively in the communities for a better life. I would like to give hope to other HIV positives clients that being positive isn’t the end of the road for anyone. “It is just another life of taking your drugs promptly and living normally like any other human being, I am a mother, wife and still continue taking care of my family needs as expected”. Caption below is Margret at her home preparing local brew for sale.
