Teenager facing rejection over HIV

Like any other child, 14-year-old Sandra desires to be accepted. To her dismay, though, the teenager, who is living with HIV/Aids, finds herself rejected by close relatives.

Born to the late Sarah Koli in 2009, in Apenik Village, Adekino Sub-county, Dokolo District, the teenager has had to change her antiretroviral drug pickup points at least three times, because she keeps wandering around in search of relatives who will accept her. 

Looking frail, with small lesions eating up much of her skin, Sarah, a Primary Seven pupil, couldn’t hold back tears as she narrated her ordeal to this reporter at her school in Kaberamaido District. 

Sarah says her ordeal started four years ago when she was diagnosed with HIV/Aids, following the mysterious death of her mother and younger siblings.

The teen recalls how that diagnosis spelt doom for her. 
“My stepbrothers … have thrice rejected me, that I am not a child of their father. That I am HIV-positive and I pose a health risk to their children,” she says.

As her health deteriorated and after being rejected in Apenik Village, where she first enrolled on anti-retroviral drugs, she became the target of humiliation and rejection from her brothers and their wives.

“I left Apenik Village to follow my other brother to Nalibwoyo, Namasale Landing Site in Amolatar District, in search of acceptance. Though my brother took me in, his wife became a nightmare,” she recounted, adding, “At one point, because of the tough times she subjected me to, I was knocked down by a speeding motorcycle on my way back from a borehole. They never bothered to treat me. Today, I limp because my right leg is not in the right position to walk normally.” 

In Namasale, Sarah enrolled at Nalibwoyo Health Centre III, where she would pick her life-sustaining drugs. 
When she couldn’t tolerate her sister-in-law anymore, she returned to Apenik Village, Dokolo, hoping that her stepbrothers would accept her at last. She was wrong. They did not.

On November 4, 2022, Sarah’s brothers left her for dead at the funeral of a relative in Awelu Village, Kaberamaido District.

“After being dumped, I managed to locate a relative of my late mother, Mr Walter Okello. I thank God for him. He has taken me in as his own child and although he is struggling to make ends meet through making bricks, at least I have [a place to live] and someone to comfort me,” Sarah narrates, adding, “I have since managed to enroll again at Ochero Health Centre III for my life-sustaining drugs.”

The teen rides a bicycle for about five and half kilometres to replenish her supply of anti-retroviral drugs, although at times she forgets to take her drugs due to her living conditions. It doesn’t help matters that adequate meals are not assured.
With the little he earns from baking bricks, Okello—Sarah’s uncle—managed to put his niece back in school at Main Home Nursery and Primary School for Primary Seven.

“This term, I was not able to pay hard cash, so I had to give the school administration a certain number of bricks in order to cover up the fees arrears,” Okello explains.

Okello, who has his own children to fend for, says lately, his little niece has developed lesions which, he believes, require specialised treatment. The bricks at the site have not been sold off. There are no buyers lately, he says.  

Mr Emmanuel Aliga, the proprietor for Main Home Nursery and Primary School, says the staff have tried to comfort Sarah by offering encouragement and getting close to her, which is slowly building her sense of self-belief that she is just like other children.

Mr Gregory Peter Okiira, the public and media relations officer at Taso, Soroti office, which serves Teso and Karamoja sub-regions, tells Sunday Monitor that children form 10 percent of persons living with HIV/Aids.  

He adds that Taso offers a comprehensive package that involves psychosocial support and medical care, with critical intervention being extended to public medical health facilities.
Dr Amos Odiit, a lecturer at Soroti University of Science, says children living with HIV/Aids need tender care. 

He says the worst scenario in Sarah’s case is her irregular intake of drugs, which makes the virus resistant to drugs, causing frequent attacks from opportunistic infections as a result of low immunity.

Trend
Last year, researchers from Uganda and the US raised concern over the huge number of new HIV infections and Aids-related deaths among children and youth in the country. The researchers said upto 19,000 new HIV infections and 7,000 Aids-related deaths are reported annually among children and youth.