Care workers support people living with HIV

My name is Mukola Kaiya, I am 30-years-old and I am HIV-positive.  I used to work as a waiter in a bar here in Glenview, Harare. Perhaps because of the environment I used to work in, I was promiscuous, especially when I was drunk.

It was while I was working at the bar that I had an affair with a married woman. After a while, her husband died and a few months later, their child died. I became suspicious of the woman’s status and my own status; this depressed me even though I had no symptoms at that time.

I was too afraid to go for an HIV-test, so I ran away from home and started living on the streets.  I became an alcoholic. The first thing I would do every morning was look for a beer. Eventually, my money ran out. In 2004, I became sick.

I then went back home to stay with my mother; my father had died in 1994.   I knew mother and sister looked after my elder brother, who was HIV-positive. Yet, I was in some sort of denial, I thought I was just sick and would get well.

My sister, who works as a caregiver, introduced me to Chiedza Home of Hope in 2004 and I became a home-based-care client. Despite this, I was still afraid to go for an HIV test until my sister and other volunteers at Chiedza intervened.

I finally got tested on the 26^th of November, 2006. I am now due to go for a CD4 count in June to determine whether I can be put on antiretroviral drugs. It was not very easy to accept my results, but I had to because I had already been sick for a while. I have received counseling from Chiedza, which has made it easier.

I am also trying to get my son’s mother’s relatives to assist me in my efforts to get him a birth certificate. Although he is in school, I also need help to provide him with food and medication, but I cannot do this without a birth certificate for him.

I would also like for him to join the Chiedza Orphans and Vulnerable Children programme. If he can get assistance through payment of school fees then perhaps he can get a place at a nearby school so that he does not have to walk five kilometres to and from school everyday.

While the Chiedza home-based-care programme has really helped me cope, especially through provision of home-based care, food, soap and access to free medication from a clinic, my family still has a lot of obstacles to overcome.

My mother does not work so the financial burden of my family rests entirely with my sister. This is not easy for her. Being a caregiver at Chiedza, she works three days a week from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. She covers long distances to visit clients, often walking from Glenview 1 and Glenview 2.

Having no salary, she tries to sell vegetables in her spare time, but due to limited time and unavailability of vegetables at certain times of the year, she cannot make much money from this venture.

But since she has two children of her own, I have my child, my brother has two young children and my mother does not work, when she does make a little money, it is usually only enough for a day’s meal.

Sometimes I’ll sacrifice taking my medication to buy food, especially when I cannot get money for transport from my sister to go and refill my medication.

I know Chiedza is trying its best, but the food rations we get, which are meant to last for a month, only take us through two weeks because we are such a large family.

Another problem is that because I do not have an income, I cannot afford to buy blankets and due to the location of this place, it gets very cold at night and this makes it difficult for me to sleep.

The major worry for me, however, is that in August we will probably be homeless because we are currently staying on land that is being serviced for allocation to other people.

My father was from Mozambique, and his only known relative is dead, so when we are evicted we will not have anywhere to go because we do not have a rural home.

I just pray that I get well so that I can look after myself, my son and my family. I don’t like lying in bed waiting for other people to help me; I want to be able to help myself.

When I get well, I would like to work as a caregiver in my spare time because now I understand how difficult it is for a mother or sister to look after a son or brother.