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BAHA
STORIES
HIV & young working women |
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Papua New Guinea Business Coalition Against HIV & AIDS
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Our collection of stories are from real young women who work and how HIV has affected their lives. We hope our stories encourage you to listen to the stories of young women where you work. When managers and HIV workplace champions listen and respond to the real threats that their own colleagues face, we can move beyond merely being aware of HIV.
When we listen carefully to our own stories we can develop programs that target the real issues young women face in a workplace that place them at risk of HIV infection or prevents them from seeking treatment. The BAHA stories come from workplace champions or from BAHA employee’s own families. Here are all our “young working women and HIV” stories. Each member of the BAHA staff was asked to collect and record a story from a working woman aged 19 to 24 years of age and how HIV has had an impact on their life in any way. The names of the characters in the stories have been changed.
Sr G By Chiharu Sai’i This story features a young Nursing Officer currently working with one of Port Moresby’s Private Hospitals, haling from central province her name is Sr. G. Sr. G. is a happily married mother of one living in one of the cities big suburbs. Trained from year 1999 to 2002 at the Lae School of Nursing Sr. H has worked as a student then as a trained nurse in Port Moresby; Lae and Kokopo in both rural and urban clinics including the General hospitals. Sr G is now 25 and the HIV is something she considers as an ongoing health concern and is discussed everyday. Amongst her patients and colleagues on its prevalence; the general awareness drive and especially the precautions not only as health workers but as vulnerable individuals.On a daily basis she treats patients with care and concern setting the standard of working by the oath she took as a Nursing officer, working for a cause to help people in need not only of physical pain but of emotional trauma of the situations they are in advising of better ways of a good recovery speaking with such peace as to give them that assurance that all is well.Sr G has learned to treat every patient as if they are HIV positive. She has to care for herself and do her duty. She protects herself knowing that her life is important because there are people who depend on her at work and most importantly at home. Sometimes she knows a person is HIV positive, but not always. HIV or not, she knows her role in keeping a patients trust is very important. Confidentiality comes in because these people trust that their health status is their personal business and that health workers who treat them with care can actually initiate positive steps to dealing with their health. The hospital where she works is not a VCT site, so Sr G cannot do an HIV test, she has to refer her patients who are concerned for counselling and testing elsewhere. She advises patients about VCT and it makes them wonder about their status. Even though she is a nurse, she knows she cannot make them go for a test and she cannot do it for them even if they want to know while Sr G is caring for them.She has a been a nurse for 4 years, she serves with humbleness and meekness of heart gives her great joy to work but also sees an HIV prevalence rate which seems frightening. Yet it does not stop her from doing her work with confidence and doing it well. She ends saying it is important to be competent in your field of work, being well informed about issues that may affect you so you know how to take them on as they come, such as that of HIV. It is about being well informed this increases her confidence and capabilities of doing her job. The HIV epidemic now places so many pressures on a nurse Sr G is contemplating a different path. AnnaCollected by Miriam, Lae, Morobe Province Anna is an 18 year old girl with a young baby about 10 months old, in 2007. Anna was terminated from school at that time she was in grade 10 and her boy friend who is her partner now was also in grade 10. Anna fell pregnant and the school terminated the pair. They went home to the village not far from Lae, however it was hard to sustain themselves so they both came to look for some work in town. Her partner got a job as a security man and she got a job as a cashier girl in one of the Chinese shops, before end of 2008 Anna went to have her baby at the Angau General Hospital in the Labour ward, on her antenatal card was written “HIV+” . She did not have a clue what it was , when asked by the doctor if she was told about it in her antenatal clinic, she said that the nurse told me,” you are HIV+”, and you need to get some special medication all the time . She said I didn’t know what it was. She asked the Doctor what does that mean to be HIV+? The Doctor explained the meaning of HIV+ and what it is capable of doing if she does not look after herself and her baby. She had tears running down her cheek and thanked the Doctor and went away after few days from the Hospital to get her partner to be tested at Annua Moiriri. She had said that she will need to get her parents to be told and that she will get to the hospital for more counselling. She said I have never heard the true meaning of HIV & AIDS. It seems both were already HIV+ whilst still at school. Sandra Collected by Joan Kim Sandra was a young, beautiful and single working class woman and she lived in a rented property city of Port Moresby. She was an outgoing person and had a very good personality, therefore had many friends both female and male. Apart from herself, she was also accommodating some young girls most of them students. She worked for a car dealer and could fend for herself. But then she started doing jobs other than her 8 – 4.30 job to make extra money. After hours Sandra who had many male friends, usually frequent night clubs partying and drank heavily. She met up and knew a lot of men. She was then involved in unprotected sex with most of these male men after leaving night clubs at all-night parties. This went on for so many years and only thing that Sandra cared most about hot nights and cold drinks. Things took a new twist one day, when she fell ill and was admitted at the POM General Hospital. She experienced severe diarrhoea and was coughing badly. Doctors checked her and found out that she had very bad chest infections. She started to have sores all over her body and was much too weak to move around. Sandra was then put on medication and was sent home with her drug supplies. When all the female students living with her found out about her condition, they all deserted her. Only one girl remained who was a close relative. She did not stay long and left to go and stay with her uncle. Sandra was left alone and I went to visit her, bringing food and fruits before she decided to go to the village with her big sister who came to visit her when they heard that Sandra was very sick. When she arrived in the village, the village people said she is dying because someone poisoned her or made black magic on her. And because of her continuous diarrhoea, she asked her male relatives to build a small hut away from the family house. They called a witch doctor to treat her but she only got worse and just before she died, she quietly spoke to her dad and said “I am dying of AIDS”. FionaCollected by Joe Bukikun Fiona is young girl who leaves in a settlement in Port Moresby. Like other young girls in the city, whom parents have settled and have brought them up in this modern Papua New Guinea setting, to them, that’s home to them. Most of them don’t know the way of life in their own province of origin. Fiona was brought up in a setting where poverty, sex, drug, alcohol, crime and the list goes on, are a part of what she knows in their surroundings.Fiona grew up and because of parents not having insufficient means of earning income could not attend and complete schooling In her adventure like many other girls at the age of 18 to start befriending the opposite sex, Fiona had a boyfriend and was involved in sex with him. Her friend was a young boy from the settlement. Fiona was also by then, with peer influence exposed to nightclub partying, alcohol, drugs and sex. Fiona knew nothing about preventing pregnancy, STIs or HIV. She never had a thought about things like that happening to her. Fiona became pregnant. Fortunately, she attended antenatal care and was encouraged to take an HIV test. She was now young pregnant and HIV positive. Her boyfriend (now husband) also tested HIV positive. Her first child died six months after leaving the hospital. After that, Fiona was confronted with rejection from her family and they would tell her to go and never to come back to them. Only her mother kept on helping her and encouraging her to have faith. She considered suicide, but with her mothers help, and faith in God she started thinking more positively and had to deal with infections. She was encouraged to start ART. With treatment Fiona and her boyfriend, now husband now have another child who is HIV Negative. The baby has been tested regularly in his first two years and has recently been declared HIV Negative. Fiona’s health is now good and she checks in with the World Vision drop-in centre regularly and takes her medication faithfully. She is also monitored by the Heduru Clinic where she gets her supply of ARVs. One thing that has enabled her to lead a positive life is faith and the will to live on seeing her little baby grow up. Her husband has not come out openly and Fiona has always encouraged him to come out and accept his status and live a normal life. Fiona now works and supports her small family. She is 22, happy, positive and expects to keep working. She attends church and the extended family now helps look after the child when she’s at work. Her husband also has a paid job and they live happily as other normal couples. My Auntie Vai Storyby Chiharu Sai'i This is my story of My Aunty Vai. It was a Thursday afternoon. I had arrived from school and found that my Aunty Vai whom out of respect we called Aunty, as she is the daughter of my mother’s eldest sister, had another one of those mishaps. This time she chose to come to my mother’s house as a safe place from her abusive husband. It had been over 20 years of the same old routine, yep Aunty Vai was victim of wife bashing. She’d find a job as a shop assistant work for 2 maybe 4 months than uncle Tau would front up, make a scene yelling in abusive language, talking absolute nonsense as a result of drunkeness and pure jealousy. This is followed by a punch or 2 even a kick if she falls by chance, leaving Aunty Vai in bruises, fatigue and of course shame because it was at her newfound working area. She would move out and into either one of her Aunties place around the city. By the time she’s healed of her bruises but certainly not of the emotional trauma, Uncle Tau would be there at the gate begging forgiveness, admitting his wrong doing and luring Aunty back to their home, his favourite words “Bogahisihisi natudia, idia ura sinana ia mai” meaning, “the poor kids, they need their mother, to come home!” The two younger children would be used as a third quarter game plan to lure mummy back home and sure enough by the end of the month Aunty Vai would be back at her home with her family happy, or so it seemed. The next 4 or 5 months they’d do it all over again. It was the children who she thought of first that was why she kept going back. Every time we’d meet her she’d have a big smile and speak of good things, never would she admit that her marriage of over 20 years was dissolving in pain, sorrow maybe even hatred. I’d look her in the face and admire her beautiful complexion, that stood out with her warm smile but as I stare longer, I’d see the sorrow in her eyes, the longing for peace and freedom of what she thought would be a happy life. I always wondered how she was able to put up with a troubled lifestyle. The year she came to my mother, she was finally convinced that it was time to admit that her marriage was not working and its time to move on. Towards the end of the year, she left with her younger children and went back to our home Island. Even though there were still some hiccups with Uncle Tau over the children, he finally realized that his wife wanted to be free so he eventually moved on. So Aunty Vai lived on our home Island with the two younger children while Uncle Tau lived in the city with the two older children. Time passed they became grandparents, the two older children working and fending for their own families in the city, the younger girl settling for a village life back on the island while the youngest boy returning to attend one of the city’s high schools. Aunty Vai back on the island managed to build her house on our family land, make a big garden and live a very social life. Freedom was what she longed for and now it was hers. There was one festive season that we visited and she was there with open arms, bringing food providing any thing she could, but always had some where to go and some one to visit and of course her personal time with her friends. The talk certainly came around; she was involved with a married man, a mineworker from another province married to one of the local ladies. Before we left my mother gave her a pep talk (mother to daughter) hoping for her to be wise. Time passed and from out of the blue, Aunty Vai fronts up at our gate back in the city. I was away at University and so only heard that she was here just to look after her grand daughter. Again, talk had reached our ears that Aunty Vai was running around with different men, it was this thing her and her friends engaged into back on the island. We heard that she had become like a rebellious teenager with an uncontrolled social life ignoring the advice of the elders around her, and placing her self in avoidable circumstances. Back in the city, she would visit my mother and stay a while from time to time. One day she visits my mother only this time she looked very unwell, she had lost almost 10kg in a short while and had a consistent cough. My mother from her nursing knowledge questioned her sudden deterioration and advised Aunty Vai to do all necessary tests to find out the cause.Little did we know that she was well aware of her status, yet did not have enough knowledge, to handle her situation. The only way she knew how to handle pain and sorrow was to live in denial, just as she had done with her marriage. Apparently, this time there was no other party to blame, no one to point the finger at, and after all the talk back and snide remarks she did back on the island, it was shameful to return. It only took a month to set tongues wagging among the city relatives of the suspected HIV case of my Aunty Vai. As much as we assumed it to be a possibility, we all still lived in denial. After two weeks of hospital visits, it was found that she had caught TB. Now under TB treatment, living with her children and former husband in the house she once held the role as queen, she was one kind of person to live with. That loving, caring, happy go lucky charm was all drowned with anger, demanding this to eat refusing that, yelling for things. The mother that her children once consoled, when all else seemed to fall was now a raging women. There was nothing that could please her, even Uncle Tau who of course lived in the same house as that was his father’s house was kind enough to let her back into the house, but just the sight of him would send her into a tantrum. Once more, this small family was distraught again, but this time with a dreaded disease called Silence. Silence is what cause people to live in denial of the truth, and to ignore assistance through counselling, it is what makes people lack knowledge of how to be more precise in handling such situations. Another linked to silence is Ignorance. At that time I ignored the fact that HIV could be a possibility in my family, and definitely not Aunty Vai, even when she was a suspected TB case with the little we heard that TB patients are possible also HIV positive cases, it just could not be for Aunty Vai – no, not my Auntie Vai!. Aunty Vai managed to stay through to see the New Year but died the following month, she was laid to rest at the city’s main cemetery. All her life all she wanted was happiness, she chose uncle Tau because of his charm and capability of raising a family. Why he drank the daylights out of himself would only be known by uncle Tau, why he beat her well we all assumed to be pure jealousy or was it? Questions only able to be answered by both of them, and could only linger in our minds especially in those of their children. At her bedside – when she was at the AIDS stage of her infection, Missie their eldest said, in the last days of mummy’s life after a long time, she spoke to Daddy with such calmness, and she even let him have his turn to look after her in the evenings. Did they tie ends once again but this time to show they forgave each other and could have done a better job had they done something about their problem before it went out of hand? Who was the one to blame for all that had happen? In the end I guess it was guilt that let her health deteriorate so fast, and all that raging during the AIDS stage was her way of trying to blame uncle Tau for the abuse which led to separation, but deep down she knew that it was her choice to be involved in promiscuous behaviour which trapped her. Cheerful, loving and caring, creative, so full of life and eager to give her best to make sure some else has a good life is how I’d like to remember her … And her smile well I guess it runs in the family the full teethed blaze that cuts through to turn a frown into a smile, That’s my Aunty Vai. Positive employeeStory by Barrow Kirupana Josephine is now a 35 years old single working mother. She is HIV positive and she has a steady partner. This wasn’t the case back in 2004 when Josephine was unemployed, she was in her late 20’s, a single mother and very attractive. She had a lot male sexual partners and practiced unsafe sex. She was living with her parents at that time. By 2006, Josephine was suffering from opportunistic infections. She was brought to the hospital, diagnosed, treated, and put on ARV drugs. She sought on going counselling with a HIV service provider and in time secured a job with the provider. Josephine has been employed since 2007 and the effect of being accepted as a normal and productive employee has been very positive on her health. Today she is a happy and energetic person who has contributed to the organization. Josephine is now in a steady relationship with a partner who is understanding and supportive. The dilemma that Josephine faces now is the courage to disclose her status publicly for her own positive living. One would never imagine that she is HIV positive. Bernie’s storyStory by Nellie B Gelam Bernie is a 23 year old mother who lives in a settlement. She is as an informal sector business woman. Now she said that city rangers are cleaning Port Moresby and she will be affected because she is a mobile sales woman. She sells betel nuts, ‘spear’, and other smokes. She said in the community it’s hard to make money because there is so much competition and people only buy from their own relatives or friends. As an HIV positive woman, I don’t have many customers in the community. I mean that’s how I see it by my observations. That’s why I do mobile sales. I sell smoke and betel nut very fast in mobile sales It is risky being an informal sales woman. Sometimes Bernie has tips from men offering her money for safe sex but she has never accepted these offers. But she feels that one day it she might be tempted to accept the money for safe sex. That is if life for her gets any tougher trying to make ends meet. However, she says she will try to control herself. She is very healthy now and is on ARV treatment. She gets her medicine from Heduru Clinic at Port Moresby General Hospital.. Susan- Growing up at GorobeStory by Madeline Saga My name is Susan and I am from a mixed parentage of Central and Popondetta. I live in the suburb of Badili on a street called Matiorogo, which branches out to Gorobe Street. I live in an area that used to be known as Port Moresby’s prime residential areas in the early 80’s. The residents have remained but are now mostly populated by squatter settlements of EH, Southern Highlands, but mostly, Gulf and Balimo of Western Province in Gorobe Street. The name Gorobe has been commonly known as a place which as a huge number of HIV people positive people through various documentaries (one of which I have seen for myself on ABC) and newspaper articles. Gorobe has come to accept the status of a couple who came out with their HIV status in the late 90’s. Max and Maura Mea. Sadly, Max passed away three ears ago but his wife has become committed to her HIV crusade as a result of living positively. I also grew up here like Max and Moura and have seen how Maura portrays herself in Gorobe ever since she revealed her status. She has painted a very positive image of herself in her community. She dresses up very neatly and has a job at a world renowned organization and carry’s herself to work everyday with dignity and much pride. Everyone in Gorobe knows who she is and what she has and don’t discriminate and that is why they have all become accustomed to. If you think you have the virus without getting tested you just have to live life until you die because at the end of the day many people both young and old die of what we don’t know but that is what life is in Gorobe. For me living in a residential area with a toilet in the house and a clean drinking/ running water, in one way or another mix and mingle with everyone on the street because that is what neighbours do. I too just like Moura am a working lady with basic knowledge of HIV & AIDS. I make it my business to let my brothers, who I believe are more at risk because they seem to spend a lot of time with the settlers, not to sleep with any of the ladies from there. I know I am discriminating – just because they are from a settlement - but what else can I do? Everyone knows people are dying of AIDS around here – we can see them from the house. We watch them. They cannot afford bed fees, they have no relatives to visit them. We have had many deaths – they ask us. My father and my uncle have a truck. They help transport the bodies to the morgue. An ambulance costs 60 kina. That is a lot! We help with transport sometimes. But you don’t always here about a funeral. These people with AIDS just get left at the morgue. I am concerned about my brothers that sometimes I hand condoms in their faces just to make sure that whatever they do they may have some form of protection at hand. The way I see it Gorobe is infested with HIV, TB, poverty etc... I can talk and socialize with the people from Gorobe like everyone else does but I don’t see myself ending up with anyone from their even if he is good looking and has a descent job. He still comes from Gorobe and it’s my business to make sure my family does the same. Ipu - now 24By Caroline Bunemiga Ipu - now 24, was only four when her parent’s marriage fell apart. I was leaving on a plane for Madang when her father bundled her into a small blanket and handed her over to me as I boarded the flight. Over the next 18 years of her life she was shuttled between both parents and me. She was smart and once she picked up reading in Grade 1, her love of books and thirst for knowledge were what kept her going. I prayed and hoped for her safety and well being every time her parents took her back when ‘they thought they could make it back together again’. She topped the Grade 10 high school exams but sadly didn’t make it to senior high as she got into the ‘night club’ and party scene of the city and missed her flight to the township where she was to complete her high school. Within a year of hitting the city life she was pregnant and unemployed. She struggled with motherhood as she got pregnant again. The second baby made it difficult for her to find employment so she opted to stay home and be a housewife. It took her another year after her second child to discover her partner had a double life so she packed up and tried to return to her family. She found she was pregnant with the third child soon after she had left her partner and as she couldn’t cope any more she gave the third child away. Shortly after, she also gave up custody of her other two children to their father. She started work and tried to provide support to her children. Her new expatriate partner was violent and most of the time high on drugs. As she tried to cope with her career she seemed to be always fighting with her partner. I would be called upon in the early hours of the morning to take her in battered and worn. I talked to her about leaving the relationship and about HIV but to no avail. Two years into her relationship, I asked her if she had done anything about knowing her HIV status. She knew her partner was having affairs. I was both shocked and surprised to when she told me she had started having an HIV test every three months. I continued to counsel her. It is now two years since I last saw her and she has since moved away and started a new life in a new country. She is still with the same partner but tells me he has changed and is no longer violent or addicted to drugs. She knows her status and is working in a restaurant to save money toward a University Degree where she hopes to learn how to write a book. Stori blong wanpela mumsStory by Jean Nuia I got to know a woman from Rigo while working at the National Housing Corporation. This was back in the 1980’s. Cathy and I became very good friends. Her husband was from Samarai. He held a senior position also with NHC. I don’t think Cathy ever suspected that her husband was fooling around with other women. She was expecting her third child in 1988 when her husband threw her out of the house because by that that time he had made one of his ‘girlfriends’ pregnant and had to accommodate for her. I blame him for putting her name on the retrenchment list and for the hardships that followed in the years to come. Cathy left NHC before me and remained unemployed even after I had found another job. We kept in touch, she knew where I lived and my new workplace so she would come and see me and I would give her money. We were not from the same area, I’m from the Momase side and she was Central, but I looked to her as my small sister. In 1990, I got another job. I helped Cathy with some money so she could sell scone and cooked food to support herself and her son (born in 1988). I don’t really know what happened to the other children; I think they remained with their father. Her relatives weren’t really supportive with her ‘market’ they tried to copy her and eventually she just gave up. In 1991, Cathy gave birth to a girl. Her relatives wanted to adopt her but she refused. She walked all the way from Hohola to my 4 Mile office. I remember her words that day: “My friend, I’m like this. I have a child and I’m trying to give her to my relatives,” The next day I became mother again to Cathy’s 5 month old baby. Cathy’s babies are now my family, a daughter and a son. Neither knows the truth. I thank God they are safe and as long as I live, they will never know. In 1997 /1998, Cathy was nursing a relative at the hospital when she met this CIS officer from Popondetta. His marriage to a Simbu woman had failed and he had earned a reputation for hopping from woman to woman. I just know that he gave her the virus. Cathy was well and healthy right up until she moved in with him. He was sick all the time. Cathy got pregnant twice but neither child lived past 6 months. I was there when her second child died. I checked the treatment chart at the hospital. The cause of death was HIV related. The man was losing weight and Cathy she was already sick. She was dying and suffering quietly at their home. Dispela man ino laik karim em igo long hausik! I had to bring her the hospital myself. I left that man alone in the house and warned him not to come anywhere near Cathy. I couldn’t care less what happened to him. She never told me until she was in hospital. It was an emotional moment. Cathy had asked the nursing sisters to break the news to me. But she didn’t know that I had known her condition all along. I was working for a company that was already talking about HIV response and so I knew enough. I buried Cathy at 9 Mile. How HIV has affected Rebecca Niam Story by Otto Anduari Rebecca is from Popondetta and lives around the street at 6 mile. Rebecca works for large supermarket as a cashier. She was suspended several times at work for not turning up for work. She was off roster when I caught up with her so she had a chance to tell me her story.
She just turned 24 last month. She is a grade 10 school leaver. Rebecca doesn’t seem to know HIV modes of transmission or even the CD4 cells and its functions.
In the past two years, she involved in many high risk behaviours due to peer pressure. Her behaviour has lead her to be involved in alcohol, drugs and group sex. She says two of her best friends both girls died of HIV AIDS recently. She was too shy to visit them while they were in hospital at Port Moresby General Hospital before they died.
Rebecca says she has been involved in night club activities and in some occasions ended up heavy drinking, taking drugs and group sex with peers, mostly with out ever using condoms. She sometimes carry condoms around but does not use them when required. I asked her why and she said, it was because of her peer group rules that she does not use a condom when having sex with a member of her group.
She was referred to 3 mile hospital for abdominal pains and funny discharges and was treated for an STI recently. She didn’t tell me about her HIV status or whether she had ever been to voluntary counselling and testing.
She says she thinks there should be more awareness to be conducted in settlement areas and the use of life skills to be able to negotiate a possible sexual situation. She thinks more people are infected in the settlement areas then anywhere else. She said it is really hard to get out of a negative peer group that is involved in sex and drugs… you are pressured to stay in. My house may be attacked, they may throw stones or threaten my family. She also encourages young people to stay away from those kinds of peers who are involved in sex, drugs, alcohol- it is just not worth it. “I cannot get out. Girls from my place are not brought up to defend themselves.”
A story collected by Joe Bukikun from Freddie an HIV workplace champion working in Madang
My friend and ex-work mate contracted the virus in 2007. She knew her status after having a chat with me on the importance of knowing our HIV status and the benefits one can enjoy after knowing their status be it “positive” or “negative”. I encouraged her to take the challenge because I did the test myself. I took her to the VCT site and she went through the counselling and testing.
She sort of broke down when she knew her result. She did not tell me but I could see in her eyes. She thanked me for being there for her. I dropped her off at her house and for two weeks did not hear or see her but got phone messages that she was sick. It was not normal because she calls and drops in to see me at least everyday.
I knew she was fighting with her thoughts because she is HIV positive. I ended up at her place one afternoon after work and had a chat with her, updating her on the latest in the office and some gossips about our friends as usual. While we were updating each other and laughing, she broke the news that she wanted to resign on the grounds that she is HIV positive and do not want our colleagues to know.
She asked for my opinion and my response was straight NO. I knew at that time, I have a big responsibility to look after my friend. I told her on what I have learnt in the trainings I have attended and encouraged her to come back to work so that she can be in contact with me everyday when she need me.
She agreed with my idea and she is now working. We attended HIV trainings together and she learnt a lot of things for herself. She is a member in one of the “people living with HIV and AIDS” (PLHIV) organisations, she is much better than me in terms of Positive Living, she has completed two years of training in her job and has just been promoted into a Manager position in Jan 2009.
Her HIV status is not known by her family members, our peers and even her employer. She is planning to disclose her status in 2011 on the same date she knew her status. She is like my right hand when I run short on my knowledge on HIV. I should say she is now two steps ahead of me in terms of knowledge about HIV. Congratulations!
Contribution from a champion working in a large construction company as told to and recorded by Eileen Seneve This is a story about a young lady - Shana works for a large construction company in Milne Bay and had attended BAHA Workplace Training in Alotau last year. Since that time, she has been very active in conducting HIV & AIDS programme for her company assisted by other champions. She shares her personal feelings on HIV. “It is a subject that makes me wonder and fearful of what might happen to the future generations, knowing that more than half our population are illiterate and I feel sad that we are unable to reach the rural areas to share our knowledge of HIV with them.”
She believes that positive attitude towards HIV and learning about it would help people to talk about it. She writes: “As a young woman I can only think of wanting to educate more people about HIV/AIDS. I don’t think money will solve the problem. Yes, it may assist us to go to rural areas to do the awareness but if we look at HIV as everyone’s responsibility, just by talking about it every day with friend and family, will make a difference. It costs nothing to talk. I only wish every one of the people we talk to, acquire the knowledge exactly the way we impart it. I think more awareness needs to be done both in the rural and urban areas, to the literate and illiterate.
When asked about the risk at her workplace she says, “The risks of HIV infection for me at work is relatively high because we work in a construction area where accidents are bound to occur. But I believe with the preventive measures the staff members are now being trained to take, with first aid and safety procedures, this may reduce the risk of any the infection.”
Does she carry condom? “Oh, yes I can and yes I do carry them with me when I am going to the village on weekends, to give out to the young people who are still very negative about the condom. Confidently I can talk about the condom in public places, in the work place, in the village and near by communities. I feel comfortable talking about condoms with people, both men and women.
Shana – BAHA’s workplace champion shares the following information of knowing people who are living with the virus. Yes, I do know two women, personally, both living with HIV. Both have come out publicly with their status. For both of them, there is hope for the better, there is life, they feel confident of living life normally, and I am quite pleased to say one has a normal relationship with someone who doesn’t have HIV, but who cares for her very much. One of them has a child that was born negative and it gives her the will to live on for the child. Their example just shows that there is life still there for people with the virus. What is to stop them from living a normal life, the only thing would be a negative attitude! · 1,559 newly confirmed HIV cases were reported · 911 (58%) were females, 617 (40%) males · The ratio of newly confirmed HIV infections in the first and second quarter of 2008 was almost 3 females to 2 males · Females are infected at younger ages than males
“Every minute a woman dies in child birth or form pregnancy related complications” PGPD www.pgpd.asn.au Antiretroviral therapy (ART) · 701 adults (379 males and 322 females) and 13 children (10 males and 3 females) started receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) · One hundred and twenty-four f HIV infected pregnant women received ART to reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child · 87 people (gender not specified) received emergency post exposure prophylaxis for HIV. (2008 STI, HIV & AIDS SIX MONTHLY SURVEILLANCE REPORT Jan – June, 2008 National Dept of Health STI, HIV & AIDS Surveillance Unit)
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