The HIV Stigma
Since I have been with A FRESH Start, one of my main accomplishments has been organizing an HIV support group for our mothers. Something as simple as support is regularly taken for granted. In South Africa, over 7 million people are currently living with HIV, 4 million of whom are women above the age of 15. The reality in the African culture is most of these women are married and have children. It is easy to assume, since there are so many people and women living with the disease, that there is no stigma associated with it. South Africans should be accustomed to people having HIV, and they should accept them for who they are right? Unfortunately that is still not the case, and people battle everyday to hide their HIV positive status from friends, family members, and partners. They feel they will be rejected from their social network due to their HIV status. Mothers are often scared of being kicked out of their house, as their husbands will think they brought the virus into their household. Sometimes this is true, and other times the mothers are simply fearing the worst. As a result, they do not take their medication, and they live in constant stress.
There were 180,000 AIDS related South African deaths in 2015, and I am very confident that a large amount of them were due to stigma. This epidemic could be conquered if everyone was willing to accept and understand HIV. With religious adherence to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, people are able to ‘put the virus to sleep’ and the virus becomes almost impossible to transmit. The ARVs also give a person a normal lifespan and allow people to lead healthy lives. As it is, however, people are too afraid to test for HIV, they are too afraid to accept themselves as HIV patients, and they are too afraid of others not accepting them for who they are. The epidemic continues to impact people’s lives as well as their loved ones’.
The goal of the HIV support group is to allow mothers to conquer the HIV stigma, to educate them about the realities of HIV, and to bring mothers together whom are living in similar situations. It has been great to see the mothers profiting and enjoying the support. I asked a mother today how she’s enjoying the group, and she said, “I really enjoy it, I feel safe with these women, like I can share anything, it has relieved my stress”. Thanks in large to the support group, another mother recently told her mother about her HIV status, and to her surprise, her mother accepted the news very well.
On a personal level, it is difficult to understand what these mothers are going through. I have never been faced with such stigma in my life and I cannot begin to understand what they feel on a daily basis. One thing is for sure, however, bringing them together gives them hope. It helps them, their family, their community, and South Africa in general. Although the group is very small in comparison to the 7 million infected people, we need to impact people one at a time. Educating and supporting one person also impacts others, and so on and so forth. Together we can make a difference with the tools and knowledge we have, and slowly put this epidemic to rest.