HIV positive and happy

By Leah Mwainyekule

 

A group of women is on tour to the maternity ward of a hospital in town.  They are in a jovial mood with their gifts to the new mothers, and are happy to see new lives brought into the world.  As they want to leave, they also have a gift waiting for them – an offer to take a voluntary HIV test.  Their leader is the first to volunteer.  As she comes out of the room, she has a smile on her face.  A smile of hope, a smile of faith and a smile of courage.

Salome Patson Mbonani is HIV positive.

“When the nurses at the Igawilo hospital offered us to take a voluntary test back then in March 2000, I was the first one to volunteer because I really wanted to know my status.  I was in a polygamous marriage of four wives and my husband was already very sick.  I just had to take the test.  And when it was confirmed that I was HIV positive, I was not sad.  I knew that I needed to be strong for everyone so that I could survive,” she explains.

Salome was the chairperson of the ruling party’s women’s wing in Itezi ward, Mbeya Urban in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, and she and other ten women who were councilors had visited the hospital as part of their charity work.  Two refused to get tested.  When Salome reached home she treated her husband nicely and later told her about the hospital visit.

“He was shocked because he already knew that he was HIV positive since he had already tested secretly, so he thought that maybe I would get angry or even leave him.  But when he saw my reaction, he too had hope,” she narrates.  After that they went to the hospital together, and she took care of him until he passed away.

Two of his four wives also passed away since they refused to get tested.  “They actually used to laugh and insult me, saying that I was the one with the virus.  In the end they got so sick and it was revealed to them that they were HIV positive during their final days.  The first wife and I are the ones on ARVs and we are all fine,” she says.

Salome is now a happy woman taking care of herself.  Her realization of the virus and the education that she has received has made her now a peer educator at KIHUMBE, through its Prevention program that is funded by the American people through the Walter Reed Department of Defense (DoD).

Through her job as a peer educator, Salome is so keen to make sure that everyone knows about the HIV virus and how to protect themselves from being infected.  And one of the things she insists on, is for people to stop believing in cultures and norms that could get them easily infected, just like her.

“My husband’s brother passed away from what we suspected to be HIV, and my husband inherited the wife.  She was the fourth wife.  All of us were so angry with him and we asked if he wanted to kill all of us, because we were sure that the new wife might have been infected as well, but our husband ended up beating us and telling us to shut up,” she explains.  “If it were not for that cultural practice, maybe we would have not been infected.”

Salome actually nearly faced the same fate after her husband passed away and his relatives wanted to remarry her.  “I told them that I would kill them with the virus that I had.  They didn’t want to listen so I ran away and went to live with my mother.  I am now happy there with my three children,” she says.

Salome is very thankful for her children who are taking good care of her.  They are 28, 26 and 22 years old, and have been very good examples by also taking a voluntary test and protecting themselves after testing negative.  And she always promises them that she has no plans of dying early.  She is happy with her life, and she is happy that she could help others as well.

 

 

Affording a roof over your head

By Leah Mwainyekule

IN the cold hills of Lushoto, the weather is chilly.  Leaves are falling down from trees and the wind is blowing fiercely.  Everyone is behind a jacket or a cloth wrapped around their shoulders.  They are all concerned about the weather.  But for one woman, that is not really important right now.  What is important is that she is now protected with a roof on top of her house.

One year ago, Yones Tito was the most concerned one about the weather in Lushoto district, Tanga region in northern Tanzania.  Her house did not have a roof.  It was covered with banana leaves and not really protective during the winter season.  When it rained, it was worse.

“The rain dripped inside the house because the leaves were already not too useful.  I cook inside, so the smoke from the fire caused the leaves to be penetrative when it rained and when it was too cold like now.  All of us suffered, including my children,” she explains.

Yones had four children.  She used to have eight children but four of them passed away from unknown illnesses.  Her husband passed away in 1993 and left her in the same house that was roofed with banana leaves.  All of her remaining children were studying at that time and she was the one responsible to take care of them.

“I started walking into the forest in search for firewood,” she recalls.  “I would walk the whole day and get enough firewood that I would take to the market and sell.  It was the only way to survive.”

But Yones did not do this work alone.  Her children also had to assist her.  One of them is Abraham.  He was ten years old back then, but his age did not really matter.  He would also go into the forest and collect firewood.  At that small age, Abraham also worked as a laborer in other people’s farms so that he could help his mother pay for his own school fees.

“I remember that there were times when I couldn’t attend classes because I had to work.  There was no meaning going to school everyday and suffering from punishments because of not paying school fees or not having the necessary things such as exercise books.  So I learned to work,” says Abraham.

The situation caused the boy and his older brother not to be able to study beyond primary level.  They were both selected to join secondary school, but could not because of lack of school fees.

In November 2010, Yones was one of the founding members of the Mkombozi Worth group, a group aimed at bringing together caretakers of Most Vulnerable Children (MVC) who meet weekly and learn how to save money and take loans that would help them take better care of their children.

After having enough savings from her weekly contributions, Yones took a loan of 30,000 Shillings.  She used the money to buy herself a roof for her house.  So part of the house got covered with iron sheets.  She took another loan of 60,000 Shillings and divided it into two parts: with 30,000 Shillings she bought another set of iron sheets and covered the remaining part of her house, and with the remaining 30,000 she paid for her last born’s school fees – the only one in the family to go to secondary school.

“The girl is in form one right now, so at least this time I was able to pay for her school fees and make sure she had exercise books and everything that is needed,” says Yones, laughing.

But the now proud lady did not end there.  Later in 2012 she took a 50,000 Shillings loan and added some of her own money from her firewood business and bought a calf.  Her aim is for it to grow into a cow that would produce milk that she would sell and also for her family to drink.

Right now Yones is happy.  She jokes a lot that Worth has enabled her to be a human being now, and be able to have three meals a day compared to the one meal a day that her family used to have.  “I now eat meat, eggs, and I will soon be having milk as well.  I want to be healthy.  In fact, I want to be bigger,” she laughs.

The laughter of Yones is a sweet, sincere one.  Her jokes are also touching.  From the traumas of life that she and her children have gone through, she can now sing along to the tunes of Worth and convince others to join in as well.  Having a roof over her head is something she is proud of.  Oh yes, the chilling Lushoto is not a problem anymore.