GirlZOffMute: HIV-positive Ugandan teen shares her story
Have you ever wondered how teenagers with HIV navigate life despite the stigma attached to the disease? A Ugandan teen, Maria Antonia Nalubega, shares her story with our teen reporter, Mubuuke Brandlyne. Maria is the current second runner-up in the Miss Y+ beauty contest for young people living with HIV. What message do you have for Maria and other teenagers living with HIV? #GirlZOffMute
Category
๐
NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Do you know here in Uganda, we have a beauty pageant
00:14 for young people living with HIV?
00:16 It's called the Y+ Pageant.
00:19 This annual pageant aims to empowering young folks
00:22 and to end the HIV stigma and discrimination.
00:25 My name is Brandlyn, and on Girls of Me Today,
00:27 we are privileged to chat with the current second round up
00:31 Miss Y+, Maria Antonia Naluwega.
00:34 She is 18 years old and was born with the virus.
00:38 She will be telling us about living with the virus
00:40 and how she uses her voice to bring
00:43 about change in her country, most especially
00:45 among the Ugandan teenagers and youth.
00:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:50 Hello.
00:52 How did it make you feel when you got to know
00:54 that you were HIV positive?
00:55 I was shocked, I'll say, a little bit sad.
01:00 But the environment where I was raised
01:02 was a very loving environment.
01:05 We had very many counselors.
01:06 So I was a little bit sad.
01:08 I was like, OK, why me?
01:10 Why do I have to be positive?
01:12 But again, I wasn't so depressed about the matter
01:16 because the environment was so loving.
01:17 And that is all I needed.
01:18 When did you get to know that you were positive?
01:21 The age of seven, I was told the reality about everything.
01:25 Why I was taking the medicine, why is it important,
01:28 and why should I keep doing that?
01:30 Growing up with HIV up to this age,
01:32 did you have any fears or challenges?
01:35 My fear by that time was telling someone that I was positive.
01:39 Besides it all, the society hearing that you're positive,
01:43 all they could get to your mind was you're going to die soon.
01:46 You have no future.
01:48 So the society brought fears to me and challenges.
01:52 And then you get a little bit older,
01:55 and then you're hearing about dating and all that,
01:58 telling you're going to get a boyfriend.
02:00 That was challenge number two.
02:02 You're like, OK, how am I going to tell this person
02:05 that I'm positive?
02:06 So that is disclosure, which is another challenge and a fear.
02:10 You're not certain of what they're going to say.
02:13 There are responses to you, how they're going to treat you.
02:16 Now let's talk about the prestigious title
02:19 you currently hold as the second runner up in the swipe class.
02:22 How did you get into this contest?
02:24 So it is something I kept on hearing about,
02:27 "Swipe class, swipe class."
02:29 But honestly, I wasn't interested.
02:31 I didn't have the excitement of joining it
02:34 until I found it like, "Maria, you're not joining?
02:37 I'm not joining. You have to join this year."
02:39 I'm like, "OK, let me give it a try."
02:41 Honestly, it was just a try.
02:43 In your experience, it has been great to talk to
02:46 very many young people with HIV.
02:48 What are the challenges or fears that they face?
02:51 The greatest and biggest challenge that we still hold to today
02:55 is discrimination in society.
02:58 And besides the discrimination, they also have stigma
03:00 because of the words that they hear, the myths.
03:04 So that spearheads the stigma within them.
03:06 They feel like, "I can't be anything, besides my friends say this,
03:10 besides my parents say this."
03:12 So the stigma within them is a very big problem.
03:15 And then the discrimination in society.
03:18 Someone hearing their positive, they're like, "Oh, sorry for you.
03:22 You can't be anyone. Oh, sorry for you.
03:25 You can't be in Parliament. Sorry for you, you can't hold a degree."
03:29 So that discrimination brings us down.
03:33 What would you like to tell to the young people out there
03:35 living with HIV and perhaps they may be depressed
03:39 or feeling very sad about it?
03:41 Above all, it's about love.
03:44 When you love yourself, regardless what the society will say,
03:49 what your family will say, what your friends will say,
03:52 you know that, "Oh, I'm HIV positive, but I love myself."
03:57 And you embrace yourself for who you are,
03:59 then you know that you can live longer.
04:01 You can persevere everything. You can reach your goals.
04:05 After that honest discussion with Maria Antonia Naluwega,
04:09 who is positively living with HIV,
04:11 I think it would be excellent to meet with a counsellor
04:15 who is more knowledgeable about HIV-related issues.
04:18 I think the schools haven't yet put a lot of support system mechanisms
04:23 to especially offer that support
04:26 to adolescents living with HIV in school.
04:30 So you realise that adherence, retention,
04:33 most of them at most swallow their drugs in hiding.
04:37 We know that people who are HIV positive are not at death centres, right?
04:41 So what role is the organisation doing to address this to the people?
04:46 With advancements in medical science now,
04:49 HIV is no longer at death centres.
04:52 You can actually live positively and be a very productive Ugandan.
04:57 And as part of our organisation, what we do is
05:01 right from identification of those that are living with HIV
05:06 to linking them to care,
05:08 and now putting in the systems that can ensure that they adhere to treatment,
05:13 but also are retained in care
05:16 with a drive towards, you know, moving towards viral load suppression.
05:21 What I can remind you as youth and teens who are HIV positive is that
05:25 everyone has a role to live a healthy life and set positive changes in our society.
05:30 For Girls of Mute, I remain Brandilyn.
05:33 (upbeat music)
05:35 (upbeat music)