If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

Young women intervene in a world with AIDS
On a personal note, I began Choose
Life because I wanted to protect other
young people from being infected
with HIV and I wanted to give them
the information and education I never
had concerning HIV and AIDS.
Although there are limited
studies portraying HIV infection
rates amongst youth generally
in Zimbabwe, figures show that
80% of all new infections occur in
young women and girls, (UNAIDS;
Facing the future together, July
2004), yet they are often ignored
in debates about treatment, stigma
and discrimination. Contrary
to some studies showing that
awareness of HIV and AIDS in
Zimbabwe is high; some people
still lack basic knowledge about
this virus. Currently there are very
few educational programmes being
implemented in schools around
Zimbabwe, perpetuating this lack of
knowledge.
Who better to teach young people
about what it is like to live with HIV
than someone who is young, HIV
positive and not ashamed or afraid
to talk about it? I wanted to give
HIV a face, making it realistic and
something they could relate to. I
did not want them to think ‘this will
never happen to me’ like I did! I also
wanted other young infected people
to know that being HIV positive did not have to
be a shameful thing and that there are many
things that you can do to prolong your life. In
the process I was not only helping others but I
think I was assisting myself come to terms with
my own HIV status. Even though it is tiring and
very draining being able to connect with people
on such a deep level makes it worth it!
Choose Life has a very strong focus mostly on
prevention. HIV positive people hold the key to
prevention. We can either choose to carry on
spreading the virus or choose not to. Most people
who transmit HIV do it because they have never
been tested and do not know their HIV status.
I believe that by talking openly about my status
and showing people that there are things you
can do once you know your status, and that it
does not have to be a shameful thing to have
HIV, more people would be tested, and access
the support and care they need, and the infection
rate would decrease.
I would be lying if I said there weren’t more than
a few days in a year where I think to myself ‘life
would be so much easier if I did not have HIV’
but looking back over the past seven years, if
someone gave me the chance, I don’t know
how much I would change. My experiences,
both positive and negative have been so rich
that I often ask myself ‘Where would I be
had I not faced my fear, been tested for HIV
and discovered my status?’ Once I collected
information about HIV and dealt with the fact
that someday I am, like all of us, going to die
and came to terms with the fact that I was HIV
positive, life as I knew it did change, but for the
better.
There are always two sides to a coin and it really
is our choice which side we choose to accept
as our reality. We can either carry on being the
‘victim’ or rise above it all and become the ‘victor’
of our lives. Knowing my status helped me to
take action and be proactive. Most people see
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