Tadaferua Ujorha
16 August 2007
In Kano, one HIV positive couple joyfully adopted a 7 year old positive girl, whose parents died of HIV. Also matchmaking for positive patients is a big activity at a popular hospital in that city. Adoption and matchmaking can play a role in tackling stigma and exclusion, the hallmark of caste systems.
Ladi Abdallah's late parents were HIV positive. One morning her dear father died, and then it was not long before her mother also passed on, leaving Ladi alone. Ladi (not real name) is HIV positive, just as her parents had been.
For a seven year old girl, life became tough in Kano. Sneered at by blood relations, shunned by the same group, and excluded from popular Children's games, young Ladi passed through days of darkness. She was truly alone and became an unwilling introvert. It was as though she were a member of a caste which is forced into cold and unfriendly pathways by a hostile society. At a point she thought her middle name must be stigma, all done in capitals. Then, all of a sudden and in the twinkle of an eye.... radiant sunshine fell upon her life, banishing all darkness.
A heart of gold
This was when Ahmed Usman (not real name) intervened. He is HIV positive as well as his wife, and came across Ladi's relations one afternoon as they were considering putting Ladi in a Children's home in Kano. This was simply on account of her HIV status. He promptly offered to adopt Ladi, an event which has dramatically turned the young girl's life around. His wife embraced his decision without a second thought, and likes Ladi even more than her husband does, as Ahmed confesses to Daily Trust.
He adds that Islam approves of the adoption of Children. His words' Adoption is recommended in Islam Bringing orphans into a family setting is the best way to ennoble them. If you adopt a child, you will then treat him or her like a child of yours. If you adopt and train a child you are training a nation'. On Ladi's education, he says' She is now in the primary school, and the school closes by noon each day. When she comes back, she goes to her Islamic school around 2.00pm. Her parents died of HIV, and her relatives were afraid of taking her into their homes. When she plays with their children, they begin to shun her, saying she should not touch their children, fearing she would infect them. I felt so sad, and decided to adopt the girl. This was early last year. Just because she is HIV positive does not mean that she is by any means less than any other child'.
He tells this reporter that he and his wife are actively engaged in reaching out to people in Villages who are HIV positive, and this is all part of the work of Volunteers within the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. In this effort he has a particular strategy. His words' When I meet someone who is positive, maybe he is afraid to tell the wife, I may now send my wife to go and counsel his wife. I target the time my wife takes her drugs, which is around 7.00pm and send her to the house by 6.45 pm. She would then ask the wife for water to take her drugs. This would show that people can be HIV positive and still live a fulfilling life. So we encourage women to come to the hospital, especially when they are pregnant'. Today, Ladi lives happily in Ahmed's house, where she is like a first daughter and is always found exchanging healthy gossip with Ahmed's wife. Ahmed got married last year, and his wife is pregnant with their first child.The golden example of Ahmed and his kind wife ,can go a long way in challenging stigma in society, and extending not a little sunshine into the lives of HIV positive persons.Ladi has, almost single-handedly ,walked down the dark corridor of pain.
Two bold families
This reporter came across two bold families at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Kano. In the first family, the husband, his wife and two children are HIV positive, but the third child is not.This shows the efficacy of mother to child prevention and control that is PMTCT efforts which are gaining currency today. PMTCT can bring about miracles in families where the couple are positive, and also wish to have Children, making them similar to, rather than unlike other families. This reduces the towering stigma which finally creates a caste. The second child of the couple is positively living, and is not yet on drugs. The first two children were born before the couple knew of their status. But after this, effort was made to protect the third child through PMTCT, and it worked, and this has restored hope to positive couples across the country. Then there is the family of Obi James (not real name). Here husband and wife are positive, and the first and second children are negative, while the third child is positive. James says the couple became aware of their status in 1998.The third child is on drugs, and the parents urge her everyday to take her drugs. She goes to a primary school where she is doing quite well.
Rare Children
One of the Volunteers at the hospital mentioned the pathetic story of an HIV positive woman who was abandoned by her own children. According to him'I went on a visit to a community and came across a 45 year old HIV positive woman who had been neglected by her family. They were not willing to look after her. It was only when we brought her to the hospital, she began to take her drugs, and was improving, that they now accepted her.Her own children abandoned her. That was shocking. It was when they were enlightened on the matter that their attitude towards her finally changed.'
Love at first sight
The story of Ado and Baba (not real names) is an unforgettable one. Both men live in Kano.One is a local politician and a community worker, and the other is an ACTION trained home based care-giver and volunteer. Between July and September 2006 both men got married to two women they met and fell in love with while on regular visits to receive treatment at AKTH.Some years ago Ado fell ill and had to be rushed to a hospital in Kano, because for two days, he was vomiting and stooling.Soon he was diagnosed with HIV. Baba, on the other hand, did not fall ill before discovering his status. He went for a test after his wife died of HIV. The test revealed that he had the Virus. His words'I quickly got enrolled for counselling, and subsequently began to receive appropriate medication because my CDA4 count was low then'. Baba says that with the amount of information he receives at AKTH On HIV/AIDS, he is waiting for his college of Education Graduate wife to raise a family, to signify that there's life beyond the virus.
Volunteers in Kano
Within the Kano area are a crop of willing volunteers, who help in sensitising the community on HIV, and this plays a role in checking forms of stigma. The group was formed in 2006 and Volunteers are given a stipend to assist their good work. Today, there are 35 Volunteers working with the Home Based Care Team based at AKTH.The group sensitises family members on HIV by constantly giving health talks in communities, which show how HIV is transmitted.Effort is made to show that if care is given to positive persons ,this will improve the clients general well being.
The President of the Volunteer group tells Daily Trust that the work requires detailed information on the patient. His words 'Before he is discharged from the ward or before he is discharged from the clinic, we try to find out his full address, and later make sure we follow him there. When we follow him there we take our home based care kit along with us. Then we try to see if the relatives are looking after him, and whether he has clean water to drink. So we constantly check on him, and make him feel happy, encouraging him to take his drugs'. He also shows that the Volunteers face many challenges in the course of doing their work. One of which is the very low support from individuals to assist the noble work. Contributions in terms of clothes, food and money could assist the work handsomely. He adds that more Volunteers are needed to assist the work in the community. His words 'We face many challenges here in Kano.We need additional money, clothes and food for the patients. Also we need more Volunteers. We also have a radio programme through which we try to reach out to the patients in Kano. The number of patients in the clinic is higher than it was a year ago, that was before the beginning of Volunteer work. Now, it is high. People come voluntarily, especially after our sensitisation effort'.
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