UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

June 1, 2008

Young HIV positive mother has hope for the future

Swaziland, with the help of UNICEF and mothers2mothers (m2m), has launched a new community-based project designed to increase the number of pregnant women who use Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.
 
The Project also seeks to improve the effectiveness of Swaziland’s PMTCT programs by providing education and psychosocial support to HIV-positive mothers and mothers-to-be, using other HIV-positive mothers as mentors.

I attended the launch event held at Matsanjeni Health Centre in Swaziland’s Shiselweni Region last month. This is where the mentor mothers of that community were presented. I noticed among them a young girl who drew my attention in finding out more about her. Luckily, she was willing to share her story with me.

Her name is Bongekile Mngomezulu, she is 21 and already has a 4-year-old toddler and an 18 month-old baby.

“I took an HIV test after I delivered my second baby only to find out that I was HIV-positive. When I told my boyfriend about my HIV status, he did not accept the results and wanted to continue having sex with me without using a condom, which I refused. Even though he said he knew that he was responsible for my being infected with HIV, he left me and married someone else. The last time I saw him was in 2006, when my baby was only a month old.”

Bongekile says she joined the m2m program in a bid to assist other young mothers to know that the sooner they know their HIV status the better for themselves and their babies. “I know that there is fear among young people to test but I also know that I will act as a role model that will give them an assurance to find out their HIV status. Also, since I belong to the same community, reaching out to them will be easier as they will know I am not lying about my HIV status,” she says.

The confident Bongekile says she has no problem about telling other young mothers about her HIV status so that they know that life goes on even when one is HIV positive. She is also keen to test her baby for HIV since he is already 18 months.

I was so happy to see such a young person full of hope about the future and very determined to help her peers to learn more about HIV and their own status. Her experience made me marvel at the way UNICEF is reaching out, using the m2m program, to provide hope for mothers and their babies in a bid to ensure they are healthy. I believe that this program is particularly effective as the mentor mothers also make home visits to their clients. My wish is for UNICEF to support it across all the 360 communities in the country because we are reaching only 8 communities so far. So far!