MY TESTIMONYS – Itae Betty
My name is Itae Betty, aged 40 years, resident of Labour line, South division, Campswahili Juu parish.
Way back when I was in my senior four in Kabong S.S.S in the year 1997 I had a friend called Santa. We were classmates. She had a boyfriend who was a soldier in Kotido town and she used to visit him.
One day, she influenced me to go with her to visit him. When we met with him we also met with the rest of high ranking officers. They all had lots of money and they welcomed us with drinks and eats. We enjoyed and got drunk. And then, these men managed to convince us to stay with them.
A few months later I started feeling changes in my body. I had body weakness, cough and fluctuating fever. Then, I decided to go for an HIV/AIDS test. At the hospital I was counselled and tested.
When the Doctor told me I was HIV positive I cried a lot as I was being counselled. After I calmed down I went home and I told my family that I was HIV positive. At that moment everyone started crying and I too started crying again. After that situation, my family denied me and separated saucepans, basins, cups and plates for me to use.
Later, I got too much involved and addicted in alcohol. So one day, my sister took me to the hospital where I was counselled and put in T.B drugs for six months. I was also initiated on ARVS.
While I was in the hospital, my own sister dumped me and left me with my daughter who was only eight years old. We had then to face a lot of difficult moments. My daughter was the only one caring for us. She had to bathe me, wash clothes, cook and even trim my nails. During that time, my daughter got infected with HIV too. Yet she could continue encouraging me to take drugs and eat.
In the T.B ward there were other fourteen patients with HIV/AIDS who failed to adhere to the medication and died. That scared me a lot.
In 2016 I met a friend called Napeyok Christine, a volunteer from CLHBC. I met her through her sister, who was my neighbour. One day, when she was visiting her clients, we met and she could not recognise me. After she exclaimed ‘Nakiru are you the one?’ the name she knew me of. I said: “yes, I am the one”. We shared our expressions and then I told her about my situation. Later she suggested me to go to meet her at the office. They explained the services they offered which motived me to register with them.
Thereafter, I started receiving the same services they offered to people of my condition. This included: home visits, paying school fees for my daughter, they gave scholastic materials, reminded me of my appointment dates, they checked my adherence, they encourage me to go to the hospital whenever I am sick, they educate me on the effects of poor hygiene and they give me basic counselling on positive living. All these has helped me to choose life and live positively.
After a while Home Based Care trained me on business skills. And after the training I was given fifty thousand shillings as a start-up capital to do business. I Started a Samosas business with the knowledge and experience I had received. Thus, with its profits I was able to provide for my family basic needs such as food and rent and I also bought house assets like a bed at four hundred thousand UGX, table for business at fifty thousand and basins. Before, I used to save about one hundred thousand a week. Currently, I save up to one fifty thousand and I also have a saving box in the house where I drop some money every day as profits.
That is my true life story with Choose Life Home Based Care as there beneficiary.
I hereby argue to the entire community, to all well-wishers, NGO’s and government among others, to intervene in the lives of PLWHD to help them fight stigma, discrimination and improve their life situation in different Moroto communities.
May God bless you abundantly!
Itae Betty