We became a family

The project of home based care for indigenous and Bantu women living with HIV/AIDS in the province of Lékoumou in Congo just ended; at least for its first phase.

This project funded by Wheeler Planet Foundation, is the first of its kind in this province with the highest rate of HIV prevalence in Congo. Implemented by AZUR Development and ACIP for 6 months, the project has trained 15 providers of psychological and social care, Indigenous and Bantu women infected with HIV/AIDS.

They have been involved in the following activities: talks on HIV/AIDS as safe spaces and support groups during which they discussed topics on basic knowledge on HIV, questions about treatment, reproductive health for people living with HIV/AIDS

(PLWHAs), the question of HIV test, how to live with a PLWHA in the same house, the nutrition of PLWHA, and discordant couples (one spouse is HIV positive, one negative).

They conducted home and hospital visits, especially for the sick and bedridden, both in and outside Sibiti Sibiti in villages within a radius of about 30 Km.

These courageous HIV-positive women have not hesitated to move on a bike on poor roads, to bring hope to their peers.

Their experience is rewarding and they are now more united than ever in the disease. There are only a few months, they had to hide to take drugs in their homes. They were taken as’ dying people ‘and become “useless” for their families. Some families have even disrupted by what they refused to recognize the HIV status and face the facts that we could live with HIV.

Accused of having brought the disease to their homes by their spouses, with their abandoned children, rejected by parents and desperately, the project allowed them to know each other, as they affectionately say “we became a family”.

They also through the talks and support groups received more information on treatment. They were happy to have restored the hope of their peers during the home and hospital visits and have led some to understand that fetish and witchcraft has nothing to do with HIV/AIDS. And so, they should continue to take ARVs to live and take their place in society.

For them and the project team is a first victory on stigma and discrimination faced by HIV positive people in the department of Lékoumou in Congo.

Sylvie Niombo