Here is some personal advice and experiences from young people between eleven to nineteen years old who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

 

 

 

 

Quotes

 

‘Family members support you, you should tell them.’

‘I angry at not being told but I am not ashamed that my mum is infected with HIV.’

‘You should educate your friends and other young people about HIV and AIDS.’

‘I haold me about her HIV when I was fourteen.’

‘My mum told me when I was nine, it is better to find out when you are young.’

‘Life is not over if you are living with HIV. You can still be fit and healthy.’

‘I like coming to the CRIB group, I also like to participate in other conferences about young people and HIV.’

‘If you are HIV positive you should tell your partner when you are in a relationship.’

‘My brother gets more attention than me as my parents thought he was HIV positive.’

‘It is hard to tell people because they don’t understand or accept HIV. Some people I told ran away.’

‘I am not infected with HIV but knowing about HIV makes me more careful with sex and relationships. Since I know that HIV can be passed on through sex I will be more cautious.’

Testimonials

Girl aged 11: ‘I found out when I was 9. I didn’t really know what HIV was so I didn’t really mind. When I saw my sister crying I cried too. It was a family member who was infected. I felt gutted when I found out. I feel ok now. It’s natural and as if it’s not really there. She’s still the same person. It helps me to know I can go somewhere and talk about it’.

Boy aged 13: ‘I am not infected by HIV but I have someone in my family who does and I don’t mind.’

Boy aged 13: ‘I always think positively.’aged 16: ‘Being negative is not the way.’

Conversation between two girls aged eleven

Who told you about HIV?

My mum knows this nurse specialist who I was speaking to, who explained everything to me about what it does and how it can affect affect your life and I learnt how you can get it.

When they told you that you had it how did you feel?

I felt mixed emotions, I was unsure of my life.

Is that because you didn’t know what it was or was it because you knew what it was?

It was just the shock of knowing about the person who had it.

Now that you’ve came to this club do you feel different?

I feel relieved, I can really talk to people and have a good old perfect conversation. But it’s not always ‘HIV this HIV that’. We talk about almost anything.

Have you changed your emotions lately about that particular thing?

I am having msn conversations about it which got me in so much trouble. Sometimes I get angry about it and aggressive which gets me a lot of detentions but that’s not too bad.

Now, do you think that you’d ever forgive the person who did this to your family member?

I don’t know, I’ve never met them but I probably could do if I did. Maybe kill them even, slaughter, manslaughter (laughing).

Now that it’s been a few years is it, what age did you know you had it?

I was 8, I’m now 11, nearly 12. So that’s like three years? It was 3 practically 4 years.