Photo of Albertina Nyatsi with her memory book by James Hall, PlusNews

 

"I grew up in the north,” says Albertina Nyatsi. “My father died when I was two years old and I was raised by my mother. I have two brothers and five sisters. Two things I really like to do are teach and communicate with people about HIV. This is a big job in Swaziland: the most conservative survey showed that over a quarter of the adult population are HIV positive, but most people won't get tested.

"They are like I was - living in denial, denying that AIDS is a serious problem, and denying that they can get infected. It comes from fear - you are afraid to know the truth about your condition. One reason is that you fear your family will abandon you. My family did not.

"I have a wonderful relationship with my daughter. She is 17 and we live together in a flat. She knows about my HIV, and maybe it has brought us closer together.

"A lot of people who find they are HIV-positive keep it a secret, even from their loved ones. They worry that their families will reject them, but you must give your friends and loved ones credit. If you believe in them, maybe they will believe in you. My daughter has put up with a lot from people who say things about me because I am HIV-positive, but she still loves me and we depend on each other.

"It is not easy being HIV-positive. My condition cost me my job as a teacher, I believe. I was educated at St. Elizabeth Institute in Lesotho, [then] I was posted by the Ministry of Education to Zinyane Primary [in northern Swaziland] to teach grade-seven home economics.

"By then I was HIV positive. I'm not sure how I got infected, but most likely it was through intercourse. At first the doctor told me I had TB [tuberculosis], and he asked me to test for HIV because he said it was an opportunistic disease that can be found in HIV-positive people. I was very shocked when I got the result. I thought, 'I am not thin like those AIDS people in the newspaper'.

"I told the head teacher - I felt I had to because I was sick and I was away from the classroom for a time. Two weeks later, he told me to go home and not come back. He said my contract would not be renewed; he did not give a reason.

"I got another posting to Emcengeni Primary [also in the north] and it was a different story altogether. I believe people should be honest, and if you hide something you can become stressed, which is bad for you medically. So I told them that I was HIV positive and the head teacher and the other teachers have been very supportive.

"Nowadays, I speak to people about HIV and they can relate to me, because before I got tested I denied the seriousness of HIV. I tell the groups I speak with that 'I am like anyone', I am like them.

"The organisation I helped form, Swazis for Positive Living, is about this: you don't have to suffer in silence; you don't have to suffer at all if you take care of yourself and have a positive attitude."

 

This story, originally entitled SWAZILAND: Albertina Nyatsi: "You don't have to suffer in silence; you don't have to suffer at all" datelined Mbabane 22 April 2008, is part of a unique series called “Hear our Voices”, a forum for people affected by HIV and AIDS whose voices are often not heard. Their personal accounts document the pandemic’s impact and serve as testimony to peoples’ strength and determination to meet those challenges. The series is distributed by PlusNews, an e-mail and Internet-based HIV/AIDS information service for sub-Saharan Africa established in 2001 by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a news service that is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).  PlusNews aims to improve the flow of accurate and accessible coverage of HIV and AIDS, strengthen media advocacy, encourage sharing of research and best practices, highlight responses from governments, civil society and international organizations, and promote the voices of those infected and affected, and is one of the largest sources of original reporting on HIV/AIDS in Africa. PlusNews is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa; the PlusNews French service, based in Dakar, Senegal, covers 25 West and Central African countries.

 

SWAPOL was formed in 2001 by five HIV-positive women who were experiencing discrimination from their in-laws and communities. Currently it has more than 1000 members and is supporting 30 rural communities by providing training and education in HIV and AIDS, promoting positive living and good nutrition, counseling grieving families, establishing income generating activities in rural communities, and taking care of terminally ill patients. In 2007, co-founder Siphiwe Hlophe won the prestigious Freedom of Expression Award. For a wonderful story about SWAPOL's founding, see Richard Dowden’s article entitled Swaziland’s conquering heroines published in the New Statesman 19 Aug. 2002. SWAPOL email.

 

 

 

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