I was born with hiv

Masedi Thata Kewamodimo, born 22 years ago with the HIV virus, tells of the ordeal she and those in the same situation as hers get to face everyday of their lives.

She is bothered by the fact that community stigmatization lumps them with carriers who were infected through reckless behavior, especially through promiscuous tendencies. She cries that people in her situation - being born with the virus - are not given enough psycho social support even by organs formed to take care of those living with the ailment. “Available programs only focus on prevention and protecting those who have not contracted the virus yet. What about us who have to live with this everyday, who have to deal with a problem we did not create?”

Speaking in an interview this week, she laments that the message spread on HIV and AIDS tends to leave out people like her, who were born with the virus. She wants people to understand that within the community, there are people living with HIV and AIDS, who did not contract it from the pleasures of life, but because their mothers were carriers when they were born.

“We should not be painted with the same brush. Yes, we have to prevent - it is good to talk about prevention. But let us realise that when preaching this message there are people on the receiving end who were born with the virus,” appeals Kewamodimo. She reveals that she was born with HIV and AIDS but the family only realised this 12 years later. Prior to that, her mother had passed away from an HIV-related illness in 2000 while she was only 5.

“Since my mother’s passing, I had a burden over my shoulders. Even though I had the support of the family, including extended members, I felt they did not understand my situation upon discovering that I had been positively diagonised. I was ten years old when it was discovered that I was HIV positive and I enrolled for treatment (Antiretroviral Treatment –ART) in 2004.

She expresses disappointment and recalls the pain she lived with when the community she was living in was talking about HIV and AIDS as something that she went out to get herself despite that not being the case with her. “The past few years were like a rollercoaster for me,” says Kewamodimo who is now advocating for protection of young people born with the virus. She narrates that when she was 13 years old things came to a standstill as she wanted to take her life. She stopped taking her medication and her health condition deteriorated.

She did not want to deal with the situation anymore. She started blaming her mother but the worst thing was that her mother was no longer there to explain to her everything. No one understood her situation and she felt like a black sheep in the family, feeling that no one could relate to her ordeal.“I wanted to kill myself. I stopped taking the medication and when I decided to go back to my medication, I would overdose with the intention to die. Even though I took the medication under supervision, I was able to play a trick on my family to avoid noticing that I was taking more than I had to. Inevitably, this landed me at  Nyangabgwe Referral hospital in Francistown where I was hospitalized fro some time”. 

She decided to turn a new leaf in her life after she witnessed her situation depressing her sister and cousin who were very close to her. After she was discharged from hospital, she joined a youth group for people born with HIV, which advocated for protection of their rights and educating the public about their status.

She insists that there is still stigma within communities. Kewamodimo, a fourth year Tourism Management student at Limkokwing University, wants their stories to be told by them so that the community could understand it better. She once lost a boyfriend who dumped her after she disclosed her status to him. “He told me he is afraid of HIV and AIDS and he was afraid of me. If we sideline people born with the virus there is no how we could win the fight against HIV and AIDS. The focus for long has been on people who are negative. We emphasize on prevention and neglect people who carry the virus.

I have decided to come out and advocate for these people because I realised change has to come with someone, and that is me. We want zero infection by 2016 but we are not directing the message to the relevant audience. We are focusing on triple 90 (90/90/90). 90 percent of people who are HIV positive in the country should know their status; 90 percent of them should be on ART; and 90 percent of them should have viral suppression. This clearly shows that as people who are HIV positive we are key in ending HIV and AIDS.”