If I kept it to myself - World YWCA
If I kept it to myself - World YWCA
If I kept it to myself - World YWCA
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Young women intervene in a world w<strong>it</strong>h AIDS<br />
Nakibuule Sylvia<br />
I educate people from all walks of life about my status<br />
and pos<strong>it</strong>ive living. I want them <strong>to</strong> learn so that they<br />
don’t follow my path.<br />
I am 27 years old and living pos<strong>it</strong>ively w<strong>it</strong>h HIV. I<br />
have four children, three of whom I had w<strong>it</strong>h my<br />
first husband.<br />
I dropped out of school in 1992, in my senior<br />
year, when I was 14 years old. My father, who<br />
has 16 children and two wives <strong>to</strong> look after,<br />
couldn’t afford <strong>to</strong> pay our school fees. Our family<br />
was a typical poverty stricken one. Over 10 of<br />
us were <strong>to</strong>ld <strong>to</strong> drop out after our father was laid<br />
off from his job and there was no other income<br />
generating activ<strong>it</strong>y <strong>to</strong> keep us in school. Those in<br />
lower primary were spared since their fees were<br />
much lower. The rest of my siblings who dropped<br />
out of school began looking after themselves by<br />
fetching water for people who paid them; and<br />
all the girls got married <strong>to</strong> the village boys and<br />
men. The man I got married <strong>to</strong> was a friend of my<br />
brothers and both my parents knew him since he<br />
always came home <strong>to</strong> vis<strong>it</strong>. He was a fisherman.<br />
I was 15 years old when my parents married me<br />
off; Robert was 20. This was in 1993. We didn’t<br />
have an official function; he only came home<br />
for my parents and family <strong>to</strong> say goodbye and<br />
<strong>to</strong> caution him <strong>to</strong> look after me well. He didn’t<br />
pay any dowry, but my family asked him and his<br />
family for ongoing financial assistance.<br />
I had my first three children from this marriage.<br />
However, in 1999 when my third child was only<br />
a month old, my husband died in a mo<strong>to</strong>rcycle<br />
accident. I was left w<strong>it</strong>h nothing. We didn’t have<br />
any tangible assets; we only had household<br />
property, which was shared by in-laws. I had<br />
three children <strong>to</strong> take care of and my parents<br />
back home were looking <strong>to</strong> me for their upkeep.<br />
Being a housewife and a young girl, I had <strong>to</strong> go<br />
back <strong>to</strong> the village where my parents lived.<br />
In the village, life was so difficult that we barely<br />
had soap <strong>to</strong> wash the children’s clothes. We had<br />
bananas in the gardens, so I decided <strong>to</strong> sell them<br />
in Kampala, the cap<strong>it</strong>al of Uganda. I used the<br />
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