Telling your child you have HIV

Guest blog  by Angelina Namiba

Angelina Namiba,
Posirtively UK project manager ‘From Pregnancy to Baby and Beyond’

Telling someone you have HIV can be hard. Telling someone close to you can be even harder. Telling your child you have HIV can be daunting.

There is no right or wrong way or formula to do it. Each child in each family will be different. Some children are old beyond their years at an age as early as 8 and others at 16 are not mature enough to cope with the news that their parent is living with HIV. Generally though, many children are much more resilient than we give them credit for.

When you do decide to tell your child/ren that you have HIV, there are a number of considerations you need to bear in mind. How are you going to do it, where are you going to tell them, when and at what age and why you are doing it.  It is also really important is to be prepared for whatever reaction you will get. Be it a not so good one, you may get a tearful child or one who refuses to talk  to you for days! However, you are also just as likely to get a very positive reaction, one that we all wish for when we tell understanding and acceptance.

 

 

 

Here I touch on ten top tips for telling your child you have HIV

1. Start preparing them from an early age by giving them information in small chunks. You can start off with simple information about viruses and how the immune system protects us against colds.
2. Choose a time and place that you are comfortable with. Make sure that you will not be rushed or disturbed. (Remember, mobile phones can be a real menace!)
3. Decide who you want to be around when you tell them
4. Be prepared with information and basic facts about how HIV is transmitted, how treatment works to keep you well and that with treatment care and good support, you can live for many years.
5. Reassure them that you are well and that you’ll ‘be here still nagging them for many years to come.’ It’s good to tell them when you are well and when they can see that you do everyday things like everybody else.
6. 6.      Try not to make it a big deal. You can say something along the lines of ‘I have HIV, it’s a virus that makes my immune system weak so it is harder for me to fight off infections easily like other people. So I take medication, which makes my immune system strong. HIV doesn’t stop me from doing everyday stuff, we can do lots of things together, go to the park, swim, dance, ride our bicycles.’
7. Explain to them why it is important not to tell other people about it. Why it is not secret, just sensitive information that is best kept within the family as some people out there may not understand.
8. Ask them to ask you any questions they may have. Talk about any concerns, uncertainties or clarifications they may have. It is extremely important to be armed with basic facts about HIV! Check in with them from time to time and be prepared to be asked questions out of the blue!
9. Tell them about other people in the family who know about it. Ask other mothers/friends living with HIV if you can tell your child to talk to them should they have questions. This is important because even though you tell your child about HIV and they accept it, they may have lots of questions or things they don’t feel comfortable discussing with you.
10. Link them in with support. Organisations such as Positively UK
    http://www.positivelyuk.org/index.php
    , Body and Soul
    http://bodyandsoulcharity.org/
    and CHIVA
    http://www.chiva.org.uk/parents/index.html
    can provide you with one to one; group support and resources around telling children about HIV. Parents with children who themselves have HIV can also benefit with getting support from a doctor, nurse or psychologist. Your doctor will either support you or refer you on to members of their team who are best placed to support you.

The power of peer support.

Last but by no means least, get peer support. A great way to prepare yourself to tell your child/ren about your HIV is to talk to other parents who have told their children. They will share with you their own personal experiences of how they did it, what reactions they got, how they coped and what support they found most useful. You can then make an informed decision about how and when to tell your child/ren.

My birthday

It”s my birthday. I am 47 years old today. I would have never thought I would be alive today when I was diagnosed at 30. I don”t feel prepared for the wrinkles and ageing. I have badly suppressed anxieties about the future: who is going to look after me when I am old, and my body and organs are tired from decades of ARTs? HIV came with a lot of hidden gifts, insights, and added purpose to my life. But I can’t help asking myself: wouldn’t I maybe have a family if I wasn’t HIV positive? I spent most of my twenties dealing with my mental health issues,my mother”s death,my demented father ( he had Alzheimer), my thirties where dedicated to overcome my HIV diagnosis and mere survival. I was 39 years old when I started thinking I maybe was ready to have a baby… But the relationship I was in imploded, also because of the long shadow of HIV. I didn’t feel I could be a one person family. I think things could have been different without HIV.

I put all my love,all my energy in being an activist. It has been amazing in many ways and to my surprise I have created for myself a HIV family which is way more inspirational and supportive than many  traditional families. One of the struggles i have embraced wholeheartedly is that of addressing the links between HIV and Gender Based Violence in the UK. it was so heart warming on the 14th of February to see the room of the House of Lords filled to the bream with people. The Sophia Forum, of which I am a trustee, was launching a report on a feasibility study on the links between Gender Based Violence (GBV) and HIV. So many people arrived we were worried we would have to turn them away. But it showed that it was much more than a handful of people who were concerned.

During the day we had many shocking presentations that showed how violence permeates the lives of women living with HIV in the UK. Violence takes so many forms, it can be in the home, by partners, by other family members, it can happen in institutions including mental health services, prisons, ante natal services. All the presentations and the report are available on the Sophia Forum website.
The launch was a great success and showed that women from all walks of life, academics, health practitioners, people who work in domestic violence services, and of course women living with HIV want actions to stop all those abuses of power. At present violence continues. And violence is not just physical and emotional, violence is also economical. The constant lack of funding for work with and for women with HIV is also violence. The feasibility study was done on a shoestring, thanks to an Awards for All grant, the launch of the report, likewise was done thanks to the generosity of the Monument Trust. Now we need to implement the report recommendations which include: more research, training of health professionals, strengthening of HIV positive women”s networks. This can not happen with one off small grants. It needs sustained strategic funding.

And please I do not want to hear: we are in an economic crisis the money is not there. There is a lot of wealth in the world we live in. Just remember a Robin Hood tax could rise $350 billions in the US in one year alone.

Here is a picture of me and my mum Susanna Meschini (1934-1986) , she was an extraordinary woman, unfortunately hunted by depression and weighted down by patriarchal Italian society of the times she lived in: even worst than now. When I was a child she took me to marches to fight for the rights to abortion and divorce. She had a difficult and sad life. But today 47 years ago she gave me an opportunity to be alive on this planet. I am trying to honour it.

Silence is Volence

Receiving an HIV diagnosis is often experienced in terms of violence. Stigma is violence: and it is often the first symptom of HIV, manifesting as shame, guilt and blame. Those feelings are experienced today, here in the UK. Many of the newly diagnosed women I meet tell me: “I would rather have cancer than HIV”. I find it really saddening, especially when HIV treatment is in most cases more successful and easier to take than cancer treatment. And I do really hate making comparison between experiences of illnesses.

For many women, in this country, and around the world, the link between violence and HIV is extremely direct. Women in violent relationships are much more likely to become HIV positive:

1)When a relationship is violent and sex is coerced women cannot negotiate safer sex.

2) Forced sex is more likely to cause tears and injuries to the vagina creating routes for HIV to get
into the body.

3) Men who are violent have often other high risk behaviours: multiple sex partners and drugs and alcohol use.

Inequality is also a form of violence. It is not surprising that out of 4.5 million young people (16 to 24) with HIV 3 millions are young women, mainly concentrated in Subsaharan Africa. The links between poverty, violence against women and girls, and HIV are easily visible.

Violence does not stop when one gets an HIV diagnosis. Revealing we have HIV can start a violent response. Tragically this is especially true for those of us who are diagnosed during pregnancy. An HIV diagnosis can also make violence escalate. As women living with HIV escaping an abusive and violent relationship is very difficult. The fear of our HIV status being made public is paralysing, alongside the fear of not finding another partner who will accept us and love us, as we have HIV. The shame linked to being at the receiving end of violence compounds the shame of having HIV: silencing many of us. We hesitate to go to the police, as many have faced ignorance around those issues in many institutions including prosecution services. The fact that HIV transmission is often criminalised also stops us from accessing support. What if we are accused of giving HIV to our partners? How will we prove our innocence? What will happen to our children if our status will be revealed? Will they be assumed to be HIV positive? Will they be taken away from us? Will they be bullied and shunned at school?

A recent study in an East London hospital revealed that 52% of women with HIV who responded to a questionnaire had experienced Intimate Partner Violence in their lifetime. A participatory study lead by women leaving with HIV in the UK, revealed the extent and the breath of the violence.

Violence is not just at the hands of our partners: institutions are violent. For example, here in the UK, we are sometimes blamed for wanting to be mothers by the healthcare workers who should be there to support us. Young women with HIV are denied contraception, even in the UK. In many
other parts of the world we get sterilised without our consent.

On the 14th of February the Sophia Forum, with Positively UK“s support, will hold an event at the House of Lords, synchronised with the One Billion Rising mobilisation, to launch the report on a feasibility study on the links between HIV and Gender Based Violence in the UK. It will convene: women living with HIV, policy makers, healthcare professionals and other service providers. We will ask for our realities to be acknowledged and for our basic human rights to be upheld. We are asking for action to end the violence against us.

Please take a minute to think what action you could take. We want to be heard: silence is violence, ignoring us is violence.

To read more about the issues:

Violence Against Women Living with HIV/AIDS: A Background Paper Fiona Hale and Marijo Vazquez

Visibility Voice and Vision a Strategy for Women Living with HIV in the UK

Is somebody taking notice of the links between Gender Based Violence and HIV?

Robbed of choice: forced and coerced sterilisation experiences of women living with HIV in Kenya

A Letter to HIV on the 16th Anniversary of My Diagnosis

Dear HIV,

Today is 16 years I have learnt that I share my life with you. What a shock it was. At the time, it was difficult to imagine I would be alive today. Here we are in 2013 and it looks like we will have many more years together. It is pointless to think what would my life had been without you.I will never know.

I know that thanks to you I had to take a very good look at myself, and the world. I had to look straight in the eyes of death and illness. Thanks to you I stopped taking my life for granted. I had to ask difficult questions to myself. Recognise my fragilities, and my responsibilities. What was most painful: I had to question the possibility of love and intimacy. How difficult closeness becomes, when your body is a potential threat to your loved one. I have experienced fear, rejection and judgment. And I have found limitless compassion and friendship in my new HIV family. Through you I have met people with courage, purpose and humility. I could start a long list here of women and men, gay, straight, young and old, from every continent. You know who you are. Thank you.

Dear HIV, on this day I would like to acknowledge the gifts that came along with the misfortune of having you inside me. Confronting judgment and stigma, I had to learn to free myself. Which is the only way of freeing others, as we are all connected.

HIV you have been a magnifying lens on the important questions about the world we live in. When we think about you we need to think about power. Where there is abundant shared power: you reverse. Where there is scarcity of power: you thrive. It is not a surprise that you still thrive today among those who have less power: women and girls, gay, queer, blacks, people who use drugs, people who are incarcerated, transgender people, indigenous people, poor people. The ironic consequence is that through you, HIV, I have seen a dialogue starting among oppressed and marginalised groups and factions, who would have never spoken to each other otherwise. Together we may begin to see that to truly challenge you we need to question and change the current power structures: economic, social and cultural.

Dear HIV, t oday I want to thank you, because you obliged me to find and recognise my personal power. You made me manifest a strength I didn’t know it was mine. Firstly ,for a long time, I felt weighed down by shame guilt and fear, but had to rise up to it. This was only possible through the inspiration and endless support of my new found HIV family. I am almost sure, without this family I would have lived a much more mediocre and confused life. If I had lived at all.

Finally dear HIV, I can say all those words, because I am still alive. And I am alive because I had the good fortune of being born in a part of the world with free access to medical services, and the medications that keep me alive. Millions of people still don’t .

Thousands die: every day, and today.

The pain for the ones we have lost: never dies.

Coming out HIV positive posing for Marc Quinn cast of my body made with wax and HIV medications, 2004

2009 during photo shoot of Putting Patient First Campaign, with Angelina Namiba, part of the HIV family, and amazing activist

Speaking at the Human Human Rights Rally at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna 2010

S

2011 Speaking at United Nation  High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS,  representing the Global Network of People Living with HIV

 

SHE goes to the European Parliament!

Brrrrrr! Europe is frozen… I saw it with my own eyes this week as I travelled by train to Brussels to participate to a Public Hearing on Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) organised by FEEM Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.

The meeting took place at the European Parliament which for a strange reason has an enormous luminescent heart at its entrance.

I went there as part of my involvement with the SHE programme  an Europe wide project – sponsored by the pharmaceutical company BMS -  which aims to improve the quality of life of women living with HIV, through peer-support for HIV positive women and education of Healthcare Practitioners in order to promote better communication around the needs of women living with HIV.

The hearing objectives wereto select important issues, explore current landscape and provide some recommendations for the future report on SRHR under direction on Ms. Edite Estrela, Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party.

Renowned experts such us: Dr. Gunta Lazdane, Regional Adviser for Reproductive Health and Research in WHO Europe and Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe of the Center for Reproductive presented their views in different discussion panels, such as health literacy and sexual education, public health systems and accessibility in the EU and the role of the EU in promoting these rights globally.

Overall it was really interesting to see how access to some basic services such as contraception and abortion still really differ around Europe with some countries still experiencing real obstacles: for example  in Ireland this year  a woman died because she wasn’t allowed to have an abortion. It was reassuring hearing panellist affirming that SRHR should be promoted as a fundamental Human Right and that this view will inform the report that will be presented to the European Union Parliament.

At the end of the debate there was time for Q&A. So thanks to a bit of a prompting from Joanna from BMS, I gathered courage, put my hand up,  and invited the panel to comment on the obstacles women living with HIV face in Europe when trying to access SRHR.

I introduced myself as a woman with HIV ( this is in my view an important political statement to counteract the invisibility caused by stigma)   and as a member of  SHE, and  spoke of how many of us face huge judgement and ostracism, from the community and even in healthcare, when we want to get pregnant.  Sometimes we are even pushed to have abortions (as reported by the Italian HIV positive leader Rosaria Lardino  here). I told them how even in the UK, just a few weeks ago I heard young HIV positive women reporting being denied contraception (the assumption being that they should only use condoms, despise widespread evidence  that women with HIV should have access to dual protection in contraception ) .

All experts and MEPs expressed their high interest and confirmed the importance of these issues. Here’s some comments:

• “My recommendation will be to promote integration of services dedicated to women”, Thilde Knudsen, Marie Stops International
• “After experience of workshop with Polish women living with HIV, we’ve learnt that the most important is to help them to fight against their fears and show them that they have a right to require a better care and quality of life. Women should be supported and empowered!”, Krystyna Kacpura, ASTRA network.
• “Create the women network is crucial
•   “Number of women with HIV is constantly increasing in Europe. Physicians should be trained on regular basis and women should have an access to the appropriate services and possibility to basically collaborate with their physicians.” Prof Izdebski (Poland).

After the meeting, the political advisor of the GUE party, to which the chair of the FEMM committee belongs, approached me and asked me to provide concrete suggestions for wording to be included in the upcoming report on SRHR.

To conclude I am really grateful that SHE is now implemented in over 14 countries in Europe (even in my homeland Italy!) and that we will be able to promote our Human Rights at European level, and that hopefully this can have an influence in our local countries.
It is a small step but an important one.

 

I Have a Dream

click to watch video

For the Italian version please see end of the post.

I have a dream that all women, but especially Italian women, one day will be free!

Free from narrow views of what being a woman is.

Free from being made a sexual object.

Free from all the subtle and less subtle sexual harassments in everyday life and the work place.

Free from violence.

Free to be what we want to be.

Free to have the relationships we really want to have. And not just that we have to conform to some wifey stereotype.

I have a dream that all women can enjoy pleasurable sex when we want and how we want it , and that we have a super easy to use gel, or ring, or other easy way to protect us from HIV and other STD. And many more choices to prevent HIV.

And I have a dream that Italian women who like me have HIV can feel like anybody else.

I have a dream that women living with HIV will take treatments that have been well researched on us during clinical trials, so we can feel totally safe.

I have a dream that women living with HIV like me will not have to live in fear and shame, but we will walk with our heads high and our strength and beauty will be celebrated and promoted.

I have a dream that one day we will not be continuously manipulated by the media and incessant subtle messages to aspire to a one dimensional version of being female which diminish the complex creatures we really are.

I have a dream, one day Italian women living with HIV, and all women, we will all be able to live our lives how we want to live them. One day we will all be free!

Click here to know more about the ‘I Have a Dream‘ project , by the Salamander Trust, and hear what women living with HIV around the world dream.

In Italiano (grazie alla traduzione di Silvia Bandini)

Io ho un sogno, che tutte le donne, ma soprattutto le donne italiane un giorno saranno libere!

Libere dalle visioni ristrette di cosa significa essere donna.

Libere dall’essere considerate un oggetto sessuale

Libere da tutte le molestie sessuali subdole o meno subdole che le accompagnano nella vita di tutti i giorni e nel posto di lavoro

Libere dalla violenza

Libere di essere quello che vogliamo essere.

Libere di avere la relazione che vogliamo veramente avere. E non solo perchè dobbiamo conformarci allo stereotipo della brava mogliettina

Io ho un sogno, che tutte le donne possano godere di un sesso piacevole quando vogliamo e come vogliamo, che sia molto facile trovare un gel o un profilattico femminile o un altro strumento semplice per proteggerci dall’ HIV e dalle altre MST. E numerose opzioni per prevenire l’HIV.

E io ho un sogno, che le donne italiane che vivono con l’HIV come me, possano sentirsi uguali a tutte le altre.

E io ho un sogno, che le donne italiane che vivono con l’HIV come me, potranno usufruire di trattamenti che sono stati ben studiati sulle donne durante gli studi clinici, in modo da poterci sentire completamente al sicuro.

E io ho un sogno, che le donne italiane che vivono con l’HIV come me, non dovranno vivere con paura e vergogna,ma camminare a testa alta e la nostra forza e la bellezza sarà celebrata e promossa.

Io ho un sogno, che un giorno non saremo continuamente manipolati dai media e da incessanti messaggi subdoli che ci spingono ad aspirare a una versione unidimensionale dell’essere femminile che sminuisce la nostra vera natura complessa.

IO ho un sogno, che un giorno le donne italiane che vivono con l’HIV e tutte le donne, saremo in grado di vivere le nostre vite come vogliamo viverle.

Change Starts With Each and Everyone of Us

UK activists with Michel Sidibe:Bisi Alimi, Angelina Namiba, WInnie Sseruma, Silvia Petretti

This was a pretty eventful week. At a very short notice had to go to Turin, on behalf of the
Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) to contribute to a training for the International Labour Organization (ILO). I applaud ILO for putting together a two weeks course on HIV for people who work to promote better and more just work practices. During my session I spoke about the impact of HIV stigma and discrimination in the work place and presented data from the GNP+ research: the Stigma Index and the Human Rights Count. Those two pieces of research provide evidence of discrimination and of human rights violations in the world of work, and the impact they have not only on the individual but also on the household, and especially on girls: who often have to take extra caring responsibility and even stop going to school in order to contribute to their family income, when somebody loses her/his job, because of HIV based discrimination. It is great to feel that I can be part of GNP+ efforts of moving from anecdote to evidence, from evidence to policy, and from policy (hopefully) to good practice. I asked all the participants to take time everyday at the end of the day to think what they could do on a personal level to reach out to people living with HIV, and then scale it up: to their household, their work place, their area, their city their region, their country etc. Change starts with each and everyone of us.

This was on Monday, on Tuesday I had been asked by the UK Consortium on AIDS and Development to chair a meeting between Civil Society and Michel Sidibe the Executive Director of UNAIDS. To say I was nervous is an understatement. And to the budding activists who I hope may be reading my blog I have to say that this is such a part of ‘ becoming an activist” you are given opportunities that you feel are totally beyond yourself. But in spite of the nerves, or the fear of doing or saying something wrong, you have to do it. Especially as people living with HIV our involvement can give always another direction and weight to the discussion. So we need to prepare and try to promote the issues that matter to us…. We can only learn by doing. And other people can only hear the truth from us, who are directly affected.

The meeting was opened by David Bull the CEO of UNICEF UK, who were hosting the meeting in their building. David Bull reminded us of the efforts UNICEF had made to put children at the centre of the HIV agenda and how important the UN commitments to the “Global Plan to eliminate new infection among children, and keeping their mothers alive” (for comments on the disempowering language used in this statement please see this article). As chair of the meeting I used my privilege to remind him that as women living with HIV we are the best ally to ensure babies are HIV free, and the best way to do so it is to ensure that our rights are advanced and protected, and that we can live lives free from violence and coercion. The same point was later on picked up by my friend Angelina Namiba who was talking about Gender and HIV and pointing out how gender inequality in the economic and political spheres still affects us in terms of vulnerability to HIV and quality of life, especially for those of us who are living with HIV. Angelina also applauded Michel for his action following the Washington Meeting with women”s networks. He has since made sure UNAIDS commissioned a thematic report on women living with HIV and leadership which will soon be out, and for initiating the Dialogue Platform for Women and Girls, which will inform UNAIDS agenda on women and girls and seems a real step forward in ensuring the meaningful involvement of women living with HIV in all UNAIDS work.

An important issue was also raised by the UK Consortium working group on care and support: the need to create better criteria to support carers ( who very often are women…another gender issue, really). At present the UN declaration that came out of the High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS, doesn’t have any targets in this area, and doesn’t address the issues that carers face, who most time work tirelessly without any retribution or recognition.

Michel was very receptive to the whole discussion. He admitted that everybody agrees in principle on gender issues and advancing women’s rights, but still little action ensues…I couldn’t agree more!

What does a good health care worker look like for a woman living with HIV?

Today was one of my least favorite days of the year. It was the day I had to have my annual smear test, to check my cervix is healthy and there are no signs of cancer. Women living with HIV have to do this every year in the UK. The GP surgery had called me a few weeks ago to remind me, and also to remind me of my flue jab. As usual I kept procrastinating. But as the cold increased in London I realized it was a good idea to be immunized, and checked ‘down there”.

Probably because I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it I kept pottering around the office and left late. I arrived at the surgery 15 minutes late. The nurse, maybe in an act of revenge, kept me waiting, and when after 10 minutes she let me in the visiting room she scolded me:
‘ I don” t do late”
‘ I am sorry” I said
” First let”s do the flue jab”
Before I could even think about it she had it out of the fridge and she stubbed my arm.
“It”s nothing” she said.
I put on a stoic expression . When I turned around to look at my painful shoulder I noticed she was not wearing gloves.I was stunned.I am used to be treated as a walking health hazard.
” Why are you not wearing gloves?’ I asked her
“Do you say this because of your status? ‘ She replied.
‘ Yes… But no… Well even if I wasn’t…So many people have it and they don”t even know it…’ I was thinking at WHO recommendations about Universal Precautions, but decided not to say anything.
” Oh come on! It”s only a flue jab…. If I was taking your blood I would wear gloves…but I have never had a needle stick injury doing a flue jab!”

Somehow I felt warm inside. I felt grateful to be treated like I wasn’t a dangerous threat. I was a person. When she finished with the jab. She looked at the computer screen and asked me ” Do you need any contraception?” “No thank you I said” and in my head I thought what a nice thing to ask a woman with HIV.

This felt especially good this week. On Tuesday I was at a meeting Positively UK had organized with the Women and Health Equality Consortium (WHEC). The meeting was attended by many other women who work in England supporting women living with HIV. We were looking at what were the needs of positive women today, and how we could have influence within the changed NHS structures .

Many participants reported that they had heard many women living with HIV in England, especially young women, being denied contraception, even when they directly asked for it. Many health workers just assumed that women with HIV must use condoms. However, we can only use condoms with the full support of our partners. And not all men, or women, like using them. Nowadays even the BHIVA treatment guidelines recognize that some people may not want to use condoms but choose to use treatment as prevention. The guidelines recognize that because of scientific evidence that effective treatment and an undetectable viral load can reduce the risk of person with HIV passing the virus to a sexual partner to very low level, comparable to condom use, people are entitled to start treatment to support them not passing HIV to their partner, just for prevention. However, some health care providers in the UK are still denying contraception to women living with HIV. Moreover dual protection has been recommended for HIV positive women for many years, and even acknowledged by UNAIDS. It was really sad to hear that this very bad practice is most diffused towards young women, who often lack the confidence to challenge it. Abusers of power target those who are most vulnerable and most unlikely to challenge them.

I wish every woman living with HIV coming out of a GP surgery could feel how I felt today when I walked out of my GP surgery. Head high, smiling. A woman that doesn’t” cause fear. A woman with the same desires, rights and access to choices as any other.

Did You Know What Women Living with HIV Want?

Here is a short video made by women living with HIV to support UNAIDS aim that no child may be born with HIV. As women living with HIV this is  of the utmost importance to us, however we also know very well  that this is only possible when our rights are upheld and advanced.

I am really honoured that I have collaborated with all those women living with HIV from every part of the world in promoting our rights and protecting our children.

Another fantastic initiative by UNAIDS is the campaign by young women who were born with HIV here is their vision: The hopes and dreams of young women growing up with HIV. Some of the young women who produced the statement have been  through Positively UK’s peer mentoring programme and have worked with us as youth peer mentors. Once again a clear proof of what can be achieved through our structured peer support model.

 

Angelina Namiba’s Guest Blog from Kenya: HIV Services Integration for Impact

I recently attended a conference in Kenya. The conference was held in the Capital City Nairobi, and was titled: Integration for impact. Reproductive health and HIV services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bridging the gap: Delivering the promise – meeting reproductive health and HIV needs.

Day 1 and 2 were divided into parallel sessions with oral poster presentations on either models of HIV integration or policy and organisational change. The focus was on how to better target key populations, increase utilisation of services and better assess integration. I attended the sessions on models of integration. Day 3 was a focus on advancing programming in reproductive health and HIV integration.

There were numerous oral presentations covering research done into assessing the need for integrating family planning and HIV services; integration of other services such as cervical cancer screening; antenatal; safer conception and counselling and reproductive health into HIV services; provision of and increasing access to integrated sexual health services for key populations such as male and MSM/MSW; and delivering integrated SRH services to people living with HIV, to name but a few.

A short video ‘In one place’ – shown at the closing ceremony – featured the case study of a woman in rural Zambia who explained her journey to access ARVs and family planning.

“I leave home at 600am and arrive at the clinic at 11.00am. Usually there is a long queue and I don’t get seen until around 2.00pm. I then start to make the journey home and sometimes I don’t get home till 9.00 or 10.00pm! ARVs are provided at a different clinic and on a different day from where and when I can access Family Planning. Therefore, I have to make a similar journey, on another day of the week – to access family planning”.

In just a few sentences, she clearly summarised the 3 days discussion around why it is important to integrate SRH/HIV particularly for women living with HIV. Why it is so important to bridge the gap between services, and how integration can impact on the both the lives of women living with HIV, and the communities they live in.

Highlights for me included, the fact that I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to  hear about what is being done on the ground in terms of integrating services; to learn from programmes in Sub Saharan Africa and to meet with researchers who are at  the forefront of advancing this key area of the response to HIV. Other highlights included the fact that I hadn’t been home in nearly a decade – prior to this trip. So it was quite nostalgic but wonderful too to be back home and to see all the mind opening progress that has been made whilst I have been away. I got a chance too to indulge in some wonderful ‘nyama choma’ roast meat – a speciality of Kenya. The weather, the food, the flora and fauna! I could go on……

Finally, one of my other highlights was having an HIV test! Yes, I had an HIV test done by the Liverpool VCT Programme who had a booth at the conference. I wanted to experience the journey that people go through at a VCT session. What information they receive and generally how the process works. The session was conducted in a very professional manner; the worker was friendly and answered all my questions. Another reason I wanted to do the test was perhaps at the back of my mind there was a tiny hope that the test might be negative! Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. And both the initial and confirmatory test both came back positive. Oh well, one can but hope eh? All in all, it was a very interesting experience.

I would like to thank GNP+ for supporting me to attend this conference.