Shunned and Abandoned, HIV-Positive Woman Tells Her Story

Posted on Jul 8 2009 - 3:18pm by News Desk
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Halima tells the story of how she got help after her story was told on Kenya Television Network.

Halima tells the story of how she got help after her story was told on Kenya Television Network.

InterNews (July 8, 2009) “My mother and younger sister drove me and dropped me far away,” said Halima Yassin, an HIV-positive woman in northeastern Kenya, who was abandoned by her wealthy family and left for dead. “I had to crawl to the main road where I was spotted by a good samaritan who brought me here.”

 

Despite the campaigns initiated by the Kenyan government and NGOs, stigma and discrimination against HIV/AIDS prevail, especially in the North Eastern Province. Internews Kenya sponsored travel grants and mentoring for two Kenya Television Network journalists to cover the story in May this year. Their cameras captured the disturbing reality of an HIV-positive woman who spent close to five years at the Garissa District Hospital after her family members shunned her.

In the story, produced by Zipporah Karani and Charles Wekesa of KTN (Kenya Television Network), Halima bitterly recalls, “At one point my father poisoned my food. He wanted me to die. Luckily, just before I took the porridge, my son who was present told me not to. I then realized that my HIV status has cost me the love of my parents. I never thought my dad would try to kill me with the same hands he fed me with when I was a toddler.”

Zahra Aden, an HIV counselor in Kenya’s North Eastern Province, said, “The people here believe anyone who tests HIV-positive is cursed by God. That is the perception here and changing that attitude will take not just years but decades.”

“This is inhuman. It reminds me of how the rest of Kenya was in the 1980s when the first cases of HIV/AIDS were reported. We have an obligation to tell these stories to make a difference,” said Zipporah Karani, an Internews trainee.

After the series on HIV/AIDS was aired, reactions flooded in to the KTN newsroom and its sister publication, The Standard Newspaper, thanking the station for highlighting this story. 

 “The television footage by KTN on the predicament of HIV/AIDS patients in North Eastern Province left many of us shocked and disgusted,” reader Ibrahim Roni commented via email to The Standard Newspaper. “The Government should collaborate with local leaders to educate residents on HIV/AIDS.”

The Kenyan government has since promised to create further awareness. According to the North Eastern Provincial AIDS Coordinator, Noor Sheikh, the government will use vernacular radio stations and BBC’s Somali Service to promote awareness of HIV and AIDS in the province.

Further help has come through to Halima as a result of this story. A viewer who watched her story online volunteered to provide Halima with a decent place to stay and domestic help to look after her. Her life has vastly improved thanks to two journalists who were able to help her tell her story to the whole country.