Kenyan women fight HIV stigma

DW (English)

The number of people living with HIV in Kenya is decreasing, but there is still a lot of stigma surrounding the disease. Two women in Nairobi who were infected with HIV at birth are working to change the public's perception of the disease.

Transcript

00:00 Born in Nyeri, some 150 kilometers north of Nairobi, Kenya's capital city,

00:07 Kilopatra lost her mother to the HIV virus at the tender age of eight.

00:11 Sickly as a child, she would discover that she was HIV positive at 13 during a routine

00:17 chest checkup. However, her 12-year silence ended three years ago when she revealed to

00:23 Kenyans that she had been living with the HIV/AIDS virus. In a country still dealing with stigma,

00:29 Kilopatra's announcement was seen by many as the right step in changing mindsets.

00:34 We still have people who believe that HIV is promiscuous. There's still people, when I say

00:41 that I was born with HIV before, they'll be like, "Hapana, no, it's not that true. You must have

00:45 gotten it through sex and all that." It is with this in mind that the 30-year-old established

00:51 the Voice of a Black Child in 2021. Based in Nairobi's Guthera area, the organization hopes

00:57 to create awareness on stigmatization. We cannot talk about HIV infection without

01:03 being inclusive. We want inclusivity in everything because it's not girls who are getting infected,

01:08 it's girls and both girls and boys that are getting infected. And in that, I still made

01:13 it clear that I want the organization to be a HIV positive based organization. So we are not

01:19 about HIV positive people. We are a combination of both negative and positive people.

01:24 In Mbakasi, Kenya, Dorin Mora Morachi would visit the hospital at least once a month with her mother

01:30 when she was a child. One of her parents is HIV positive, but her status was not known to her

01:36 until she clocked 13. As a child, she did not know what this meant, although she would later start

01:43 treatment in 2005 until reality started hitting hard. I got pneumonia after the two years. I

01:51 usually call it a small holiday that I took. So the doctors now started asking, why did you stop

01:56 your medication? Of course, I didn't tell them it's the Loliondo thing, but I also felt like I

02:01 was fatigued. The treatment fatigue had kicked in. Nobody prepares you that 18 years on treatment,

02:07 you will get tired and you will not know how to tell people you are tired. But Dorin was not the

02:13 only one experiencing this feeling as a person living with HIV. Even though she has learned to

02:20 live with the virus, Cleopatra at some point stopped taking the much needed antiretroviral

02:26 drugs for a year. I remember when I went back to the hospital, the caregivers were very,

02:33 very disappointed because this is one person who was giving hope to the adults. I was a peer

02:38 educator in that hospital. And then I'm coming here, I've defaulted. My skin, as well, I've

02:42 already started getting some weight issues because I've defaulted. For almost a year,

02:46 I did not take medication. My health is very, it has deteriorated to the point that they felt so

02:52 bad that I was the one who was giving hope. And now I'm done being given hope. Giving people hope

02:58 was also what motivated Dorin. In 2015, when the 31 year old decided to disclose that she had been

03:05 living with the virus from birth, her email was inundated with hundreds of messages. When I read

03:12 through some of the emails, I saw how much people needed somebody that they can relate their story

03:18 to that I am also living with HIV. I am also taking treatment daily and how most people cannot even

03:26 disclose to their loved ones. They live in a whole family set up and nobody knows about apart

03:32 from them and the doctor. So she launched I am a beautiful story with the same mission of inspiring

03:39 people with HIV and educating the larger public. I am a beautiful story is an initiative I started

03:46 from my own lived experience. It's purely digital, that means on social media. And it's more of to

03:54 educate the general public and also people living with HIV on different HIV related topics. And to

04:03 just affirm the fact that you are not your diagnosis. Despite living with HIV having any

04:09 long term health condition, you are a beautiful story. And back at the voice of a black child

04:16 office in Githairai, Cleo and colleagues are working to change perceptions and encouraging

04:22 people to get tested through their communal initiatives. It didn't happen in part I could

04:27 not be doing it. But because we are helping someone, we are inspiring someone, we are

04:31 encouraging someone and we are equally educating the community at large. That is where we'll

04:36 continue. And I want to tell people make good use of social media. Social media is very effective.

04:42 Now, both Dorin and Cleopatra have a major task of debunking the misconceptions around HIV

04:49 and living beyond the stereotypes. I think stigma is where the real epidemic is, to be honest.

04:56 When somebody stigmatizes you on the basis of your HIV status, you actually feel bad because

05:01 it's not something that you, you, you, that changes your life in any way.

05:07 Due to the success of her project, Dorin decided to launch a YouTube channel by the same name,

05:13 I am a beautiful story. To date, Dorin has produced 181 episodes from our humble living room.

05:21 The channel currently has more than 16,000 subscribers. And Cleopatra Wanjiku is a living

05:28 testament that one can make a positive change through passion and just by living in your own

05:33 truth. They both have the same mission, changing perceptions on HIV and inspiring generations to be

05:40 bold.

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