In Western and Central Africa, more than a quarter of deaths are caused by HIV/AIDS and 45 percent of children are born with HIV. In 2015, 7,500 teenagers and young women were reported to have been infected with HIV every week, and the bulk of this number came from Southern Africa.
The stigma that comes with HIV/AIDS, scares people away from carrying out tests to ascertain their status, let alone talk about it after they discover they are positive. The stigma surrounding the disease makes it look like a death sentence. But in reality, if well managed, one can live a healthy life with this disease, and his/her chances of transmitting it would reduce drastically, if they test themselves and religiously take the medication prescribed to them. But this basic information regarding the disease is not well known, as people are widely ignorant about it. This makes them ostracise people living with the disease for the fear of getting infected.
This narrative might change in Burkina Faso, as a woman called Rachel Yameogo, the owner of a foundation called “Help me to be a Mother” is determined to fight against the stigma surrounding the virus. She has begun this fight by carrying out voluntary activities to educate HIV-positive women about preventing the transmission of the virus to their children in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. According to Rachel, who is also HIV positive, when she found out that she had the virus, she was determined to beat it.“HIV will not beat me, I will beat the virus,” she said.
Rachel has also set off to defeat this virus with an awareness program she organises in her community and with every woman she inspires to get tested. Her goal is to make sure that pregnant women get tested for HIV and, if they are positive, she helps them begin the PTME programme and provides them with moral support.
Rachel is a 46-year-old mother of two who was forced to restart her life after she lost her husband and child to the virus. Despite the stigma surrounding her, Rachel found a job and went on to study to become a midwife. When she gave birth to her children, who were both HIV-free through the help of PTME (Prevention of Transmission of HIV from Mother to Child), she was motivated to educate pregnant women in Burkina Faso so that they will not pass on the virus to their children.
“Some revolutions happen because of loud screams and great actions. Others go forward in a slow silence. They are revolutions that need time and love. And in Africa, these revolutions belong to the women because they know the value of life and are ready to defend it,” Rachel said.
Rachel described how some of the women she met during a meeting had faced discrimination at least once in their lives. And in their own ways, these women highlighted the magnitude of discrimination they had witnessed or faced, while they laughed. A woman highlighted how some people wore burka (no matter what religion they are) to hide their identity while they took a trip to the hospital to take their drugs. One woman went on to tell a story of a day she put her drugs in a transparent bag and was reprimanded by a man who asked her to cover it, but she looked at him and replied “No way.” I’m sure she said it with the same conviction she displayed while she recounted this event.
This is, however, a tiny aspect of the kind of stigma these women, who are increasingly ashamed of their status like they went on a quest to get infected by the virus, have to face. But with people like Rachel, who channel efforts into making sure that our next generation of children will be HIV-free and women living with HIV will not be stigmatised, the wearing of Burkas to go for medical appointments and the reprimanding of HIV-positive people to hide their drugs will be history. Rachel travels to rural communities to educate the women there as she understands that they do not get the information they need concerning this virus.
