Let's end HIV and Aids stigmatisation.

Today being first December and world aids day, reminds me of that terrifying year, yes 2007.I loosed my mother out of stigmatisation, it is real and it still happens, growing up, I was looking  up to be like her, a strong woman, but I finally never grew up beside her. This woman's strength  was crushed by the community she valued, it took her to her grave, so painful. The community has a tendency of blaming the women,they Jude them without seeking other side of the story, yes, they blamed it on my mother for having  infected and killed my dad  with HIV and aids. 

Back in those days she had become the talk in every household  and of the town, whenever  we passed it was gossip ,spying eyes or strained necks just to confirm that my mum was infect with HIV and aids. I was young but I saw it, I heard everything. My mum then withdrew from her medication, those last days she locked herself in her room and cry,she would  scream  her lungs out, I would  heard her cursing the world and my dad, Ifelt her pain but I did not understand her, if she was here today when am this grown the she could have never died. Her body was full of rashes, herpes, she even  developed ulcers ,she was not eating. She grew thin so withdrawn and within a month she was fully blown. She was not the woman we once knew. 

Our house which was always full of visitors was now being isolated,many children  were warned not to eat or drink in our house, at times they ran away from me when I went playing, I never understood, but today I know the reason. They thought  I was infected. They had been warned that maibe if they touched me, the would get infected. 

Being the last child in our family, when my mum got I'll, they knew she had given birth to me positively, when she died I heard people  gossiping that I wouldn't stay for long, they said I would  die. I grew fearing and waiting for my death wich never happened, I was scared of testing my status, I couldn't  imagine  life after the test, then that day I tested, the results were negative I was not positive. My mum is and will remain the best woman, she had protected me against  being infected. Even positive parents give birth to negative babies, am that  baby, I have lived for 25years healthier and stronger. 

#i stand with anyone affected or infected with HIV and aids 

#Let's end stigmatisation  it kills more than the virus. 

This is to honour my mum, Rose Amonge.