As a peer educator or someone working on SRH issues, have you ever thought about what you would do if you were told you have AIDS? Or you were told someone very close to you got infected somehow, will you blame yourself? Will you live in denial of the reality of your new found status? And for that person close to you, will you show them all the love and care? Will you? All these questions bring me to the story of a young lady that I know. She was actively involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and campaign. She was a trained peer educator who trained over 2,000 youth and tested people for HIV/AIDS. She was also a counselor on the hotline, educating people on Sexual Reproductive Health issues and stuff.
She started complaining about being sick and when people asked, she said they told her at the hospital it was fibroid. She was always on medications. People around her showed sympathy and supported her the way they could, but not long after, she decided she wanted to quit and she did. She left the organization for good. At least they thought. Subsequently, a co-worker that lived nearby would go visit her to check up on her and see how much progress she was making in her health, but she reported that the lady was getting worse and she suspects that it is AIDS. She mentioned that the lady had all the symptoms of AIDS and that when she told her, the lady said it wasn’t AIDS but voodoo; that her family was trying to hunt her down.  Her co-worker told her to at least get tested and be certain that it wasn’t AIDS since she knew she was having AIDS symptoms but she stubbornly refused and said she will keep taking her local herbs in calabashes. Apparently, she had tested herself and she knew she was HIV positive but she just couldn’t comprehend the reality of being positive. She lived in denial of her status. She couldn’t admit to herself and move on. She was trapped in a phobia of uncertainties; uncertainties about how the world will receive her, or perhaps how she will respond to life and her environment. At this point, this lady had little or no money to take care of herself, she lived alone and there was nobody to take care of her. She was losing weight, strength and her hopes for the future were turning bleak.  Her co-workers called her parents to come pick her so she can get the care and support she needs but they said she has refused to come home and since she wasn’t a child they couldn’t force her.