valuable tool in achieving acceptance and reducing discrimination.
When Floritah Chiradza, 40, found out that she was HIV positive, she began putting together a death wish list. She felt so depressed and isolated that her memory deteriorated and she couldn’t remember anything.
“I went through a hard time because I couldn’t accept my [HIV] status,” she said. “I felt silent stigma, where people sideline you without openly telling you. I don’t think people realise they are stigmatising you. Maybe people think they are caring for you but in reality it’s stigma at work.”
Her husband abandoned her, leaving her with a six-month-old baby. He only returned after a year and a half when he was too sick to take care of himself. Floritah looked after him until he passed away.
According to UNAIDS, HIV-related stigma and discrimination is a ‘process of devaluation’ of people either living with or associated with HIV. Actions that emerge from stigmatising attitudes tend to be subtle, and efforts to combat it have been impeded by a lack of tools and tested interventions. Women living with HIV often find themselves either receiving too much or unwelcome attention within the family and larger community. As a result they lose power, respect and identity through the taking away or diminishing, of their roles, responsibilities and social standing.
After she openly disclosed her status, Floritah noticed that people around her began to express untoward sympathy towards her. At home, Floritah’s mother couldn’t come to
terms with the fact that her daughter was HIV positive. So she preferred to tell relatives and friends that her daughter was suffering from something else. Floritah’s workmates began to isolate her by taking away some of her responsibilities at work.
“Stigma is something that I really went through. In most cases, people don’t admit stigmatising you, nor do they think they are discriminating against you, but some of the things they do show you that stigma and discrimination are real,” said Floritah.
Disclosure can cause an increase in stigma and discrimination, but it is also, paradoxically, an essential step in fighting stigma and discrimination. Before Floritah disclosed her status, people accepted her even when she fell ill, but things drastically changed after her disclosure.
But Floritah did not give up. She began taking steps to seek information on how to live positively with HIV – a journey that took her to several support groups for people living with HIV. At her workplace, she felt isolated, but disclosure began the healing process for her.
“I found comfort in talking to people. I realised that I have to talk to people to pull through. So I started talking to my sisters, and my mother, though she could not take it. My mother is one person who made me stand bold and talk about my status because I was trying to convince her that she had to accept me as I was,” she said
Post published in: News