We
are all affected by AIDS pandemicIntroduction
Here you will find a selection of stories produced by the radio's broadcasters about some of the many things that the radio is involved in, ranging from the radio schools to Chikuni's centenary celebrations. Some of them have been written as leading stories for some programmes, parts of reports or just as the spirit leads.
Through their eyes; HIV positive kids tell it all
By Vanessa Nchimunya, Adrey Kaaba (9th August 11)
It is a hot Wednesday morning as I walk to the Bunyina center, a secluded part of the Chikuni Mission hospital, built to cater for the growing HIV population and at this center people come to be tested, have their CD4 count done, and many other HIV/AIDS related activities.
The center is a hive of activity; pregnant women sit on very uncomfortable benches waiting to be attended to, a few men can be spotted here and there and young children sit in groups, enjoying their tea as they wait for their counselling session in the children’s room. Tea break ends and its time to get to business; the kids sit, quiet and attentive as Counsellors at the Bunyina explain to them why they are taking drugs. Their childhood innocence and curiosity is visible as they sit attentively trying to grasp every single word about a disease that threatens to rob them of their future. They are children just like any other. Anne Sichingwe exudes confidence and poise beyond her tender years. She is only ten years old and lives in Sintemba village in Monze rural with her 70 year old grandmother. She is in grade four at ChikuniBasicSchool and wants to be a nurse when she grows up. ‘I want to be a nurse so that I can come to BunyinaCenter to take care of patients’, Anne says. Callen Hamainza is 12 years old and lives in Sintemba village and goes to a local school there and like Anne, dreams of becoming a nurse in the future. She is outspoken and very radical. Eva Ndumba is fifteen years old and in grade seven at Sichiyanda basic in Chisekesi, a bustling peri-urban area.
Three different lives, bound by one common thread. HIV. They are young, infected and are on life prolonging anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment and once in a while they trek from their different villages to the Bunyina centre at ChikuniMissionHospital. Through the lives of Anne, Callen and Eva we catch a glimpse of the harsh reality of HIV/AIDS in childrenand what sufferers of the deadly and incurable disease go through as they hang on to life that is dependent on life prolonging drugs.
Anne tells me that her mother died when she was just a baby, and after that she was sick most of the time, but thanks to the Bunyina center, she is alive and very healthy. ‘My mum died when I was very little’, Anne says, ‘but my grandma brought me to the Bunyina center, I was tested for HIV and the result came out positive. I have been on ARVs for five years now’. Eva just like Anne was orphaned at a tender age, she has no idea how old she was when her mother died; all she tells me is that she was very young.
Callen, Eva and Anna are some of the estimated 28,000 babies born with HIV in Zambia, according to the National Aids Council in its 2007 report. Zambia has an HIV prevalence of 21.2 percent among pregnant women, and the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme allows women to either be tested or opt out.
The three girls are lucky to be alive because many infants born with HIV die before they are diagnosed or can receive ARV treatment as most babies are not tested for HIV at birth. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has been given an adult face but what do children living with the virus got to say about a disease that threatens their future? “It’s a tough world, being a kid with HIV is not easy. Friends laugh at me in school. Most times they refuse to eat with me, I only eat with Tichawana, because she also has the virus”, Anne sadly says. Callen also faces stigmatisation and discrimination at school. “When a person laughs at me because I have HIV, I tell them that they shouldn’t laugh at me because they have not been tested and they don’t know their status”. Eva also faces the stigma and discrimination though it is not as bad as the kind her friends face.
Jelita Muyola is a nurse at the hospital as well as a counsellor and says most kids at the start ask questions as to why they have to take ARVs but once they are made to understand why, they adhere to treatment. She says these kids usually complain of stigma and discrimination in school.
What future awaits these innocent victims of a disease that requires them to take drugs from the cradle to the grave? The three girls tell me that they have no problem with the fact that they are living with HIV, which still remains incurable. Eva says that her wish is that a cure for the virus that leads to AIDS is found. It’s important that different stakeholders work hard to ensure that there is a reduction in the number of babies born with HIV, so that young girls like Eva, Callen and Anne can have a childhood, enjoy roaming the wild and have a carefree life instead of worrying about the fact that they live with a virus that is incurable and have to be on medication until the end of their days.