If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

Young women intervene in a world with AIDS
Felicita Hikuam
It was enraging to me that the world continues to
move on while millions of productive Africans and
young people around the world die from a preventable
illness, and one that can be treated to ensure a longer
productive life!.
I can remember being around 11 years old in
the late ‘80s when the first cases of HIV were
registered in Namibia and my mother was talking
about colleagues who were diagnosed as living
with HIV. Fear tactics were the order of the day
for HIV campaigning and my mother’s way of
explaining HIV to us was bringing home a book
of people with STIs and dying of AIDS-related
illnesses: These images are still quite vivid in my
mind.
I had known about HIV in our community since
I was a girl; however by the time I was a young
woman and returned to Namibia after my studies
abroad, the pandemic was hitting much closer to
home. Over the past five years I’ve buried many
of my relatives due to AIDS-related death and
am increasingly dealing with the effects of HIV on
my life and my family’s livelihood. I work in HIV
not because it is helping ‘the beneficiaries’, but
because I am living with HIV in my family. It is my
reality and not something out there somewhere
affecting other people, but right here with me
every day.
I decided to go into the communications field,
and particularly development communication,
because, from a very young age, I was aware
of the power of information in transforming
people’s lives. I realised that to contribute to
the overall development of my country I had to
work in a field that I was passionate about and
use my communication skills to contribute to the
response to a disease that was negating our
development and affecting me so personally.
One of the most moving experiences with
HIV in my career was on my first field trip to a
home based care project run by the Namibian
Red Cross in the north of Namibia. On the
second day of the trip we had the opportunity to
accompany a care facilitator on her visit to one
of her ‘clients’, an 18 year old woman living with
HIV. This young woman was bedridden with an
AIDS related illness. She could not visit the toilet
or wash herself and was relying heavily on the
support of the care facilitator and her family. I
saw humanity working first hand through this
Red Cross volunteer to protect the dignity of
this young woman. It was enraging to me that
the world continues to move on while millions of
productive Africans and young people around the
world die from a preventable illness, and one that
can be treated to ensure a longer productive life!
This experience fuelled my resolve to contribute
in some way to the empowerment of women and
young people who might not be living with HIV
yet, but also to protect the dignity and human
rights of those who are living with HIV.
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