Hope and a future for HIV positive people
Five years ago Paul Maina was hopeless and lost following the death of his wife from AIDS-related illnesses.
Maina often spent all day in bed, too morose to either care for himself or his two young children, Teresa and John.
Knowing that his wife had died of AIDS filled Maina with shame and self-pity. He lived in constant fear of being stigmatised by his community, and was anxious about how soon he too would die.
When AngliCORD’s Project Manager Beth Hookey visited Mt Kenya West to review the progress of our partners’ HIV/AIDS program, she was greeted by Maina with a beaming smile.
His life has been transformed by the love, care and acceptance shown to him over the past five years by AngliCORD’s partners, the Mothers Union and the Diocese of Mt Kenya West.
AngliCORD established a relationship with the Diocese of Mt Kenya West nearly 10 years ago, supporting vocational training and community-based HIV/AIDS programs.
In 2002 the Good Samaritan Clinic was opened in Nyeri to provide voluntary counseling and testing for HIV/AIDS, and to treat HIV-related illnesses.
Maina was employed as a clinic attendant, and through this meager wage he is able to meet the basic needs of his children and himself.
Is Maina really HIV positive? The image that many people have of a HIV positive person is of someone who looks gaunt and wasted, frail and very ill.
Maina does not fit this stereotype, nor is his apparent health the result of anti-retroviral treatment.
Maina’s health is the result of a number of seemingly small but very significant factors.
Maina has accepted his HIV status and his self-worth has been restored. He looks after his health, enjoys a good diet, and takes regular exercise. Maina maintains a positive attitude and tries to avoid stress.
Through his work at the clinic, Maina has seen real change in the knowledge people have about HIV/AIDS.
“Stigma has been reduced, so more people are coming for voluntary counseling and testing,” Paul Maina says.
Maina is also less anxious about the future of his children, as both Teresa and John are sponsored to undertake 2 year vocational training courses.
Teresa will finish her dressmaking course this year, and John is training to be a welder.
Maina, and many other men and women who are HIV positive have been given hope for a better future as a result of the work of our partners in Mt Kenya West Diocese.
Over the past five years, nearly 100 members of the Mothers Union in the Diocese have been trained in counseling and caring for people who are HIV positive, and in promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS through joint funding from AngliCORD and AusAID.