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GUEST COLUMN |
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My Story
Tuberi |
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| (The author is a person living
with HIV from Fiji) |
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| I am a woman living with HIV for
the past five years. I was diagnosed in May 2003, not a year
from my wedding date. At no time will I ever blame my husband
for the infection because had he been empowered with information
and services about HIV, he would have been able to take adequate
precautions. |
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| My memories of the earliest days
of my marriage go back to happy moments - our marriage was one
of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, until the day
my husband learned that he was HIV-positive. However, when he
learned of his HIV status, he was afraid of disclosing it to
me and things began to change between us. Unnerved by what was
happening in our marriage, I tried to coax it out of him. However,
the only response I could get out of him was that I needed to
see a doctor. So I did, thinking that it might clear away the
fog that had enveloped our lives. |
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| Landscapes passed in a blur on my way to the
hospital, as my mind conjured up images of possibilities of
various infections and diseases that could have entered our
lives. But the possibility of facing HIV/AIDS never ever occurred
to me. |
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| My trip to the hospital proved futile as the
doctors couldn’t disclose my husband’s HIV status
to me because it was the sole prerogative of my husband. When
I finally did learn of my husband’s HIV status and then
mine, I burst out crying, as anyone would if they learned they
were HIV-positive. I began to imagine a painful future that
was never going to end. I had the image of death in mind. I
couldn’t figure out what my future would entail. Life
had suddenly become a nightmare and the world was no longer
a beautiful place to live in. |
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| This dreadful existence was not real and was
only in my mind. It continued till I decided to disclose my
HIV status to those around me. I first disclosed it to my best
friend, then my church members. The most difficult was the disclosure
before the Great Council of Chiefs. It was the day I decided
to come out with my HIV status that I started looking at my
life constructively and things changed once again. This time
for the better. I realised that till the day I am living, life
will be beautiful and worth living. Today, I am involved in
various prevention and awareness campaigns in my country and
am trying my best to empower others - from the young to the
old - through disseminating information about the epidemic,
with the belief that empowerment through information and services
is the key to preventing the spread of the epidemic. I hope
my story will change lives and remove myths about the epidemic,
reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with the epidemic,
and tell those living with HIV/AIDS that life is beautiful and
worth living each moment of it. |
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