‘How I took ARVs while in boarding school’

World Aids Day falls on Sunday December 1. As the world continues to reflect on the theme ‘Getting to zero new infection, zero discrimination and zero Aids-related deaths, what are some of the challenges that people living with HIV encounter? SAM CHIBAYA profiles the life of a student who has had to live with HIV in boarding school.

While some lives are better left untouched, there comes a time when their stories cannot be left untold, a 19-year-old from Lilongwe is such an example.

However, he cannot tell a complete story of himself without mentioning that he suffered mental trauma while in the hands of a wolf that came in a sheep’s skin—’a good Samaritan’ who was running an orphanage.

The young man, who asked for anonymity, has been HIV positive from birth.

“I have lived with the virus for the whole 19 years of my life,” he says.

He insists on hiding his identity, not merely for fear of stigma and discrimination, but for fear of his relations know ing that he has the virus.

He has a story that occurred in his early teens after the death of his parents. It left an indelible mark on his life.

“I normally don’t tell it, I haven’t even told my relations,” he says.

He says while he was at the orphanage (name withheld) in the Southern Region, the orphanage director sexually abused him.

“The director was caring and he would allow us to play in his house. One day, he called me into his bedroom and told me to fondle his manhood. Later, he inserted it into my anus. It was very painful. He repeated it for many days,” the young man said, adding he could not disclose it because the director said he would shoot the boy the moment he told someone.

He claims he was not the only victim at the orphanage.

While this happened, his health deteriorated.

“I was in and out of the hospital. My viral load was getting higher and I suffered a number of illnesses. The sexual abuse disturbed me so much. I felt that life had no meaning,” he said.

He later made up his mind to leave the orphanage, despite that it was well funded and the learners were getting educational material for free.

“I was even promised fees for college studies, but I could not take the abuse anymore,” he said.

He eventually went to a boarding secondary school in Mchinji, where he sat the just released Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.

When he went to the new school, he realised that he would get into an emotional trauma of a different nature.

“You know, as someone who takes ARVs daily, I took with me the drugs to school. Being in a new environment, it became a challenge for me to take the drugs at the prescribed times. I feared the reaction of my fellow students,” he said.

After some time, he stopped taking the ARVs. Yes, he had the drugs with him, his health was compromised, but he could not take the medication for fear of what his friends would think if they saw him.

At that time, he was receiving the drugs from Baylor College of Medicine Abbott Fund Children’s Clinic in Lilongwe.

Linda Malilo, special projects and training coordinator at the clinic confirmed knowing the young man.

“He is our client and he still gets the ARVs and other medical help from our clinic. I didn’t know that he had stopped taking the drugs. This says a lot about the impact of stigma and discrimination,” said Malilo.

One day, it occurred to him that someone might still discover the ARVs in his room by accident. How long could he hide his status, he wondered? He therefore, decided to get support.

“I went through managing HIV and Aids lessons learnt at Baylor Clinic in Lilongwe. I plucked the courage and told the school director about my health status,” he says.

Being open-minded and sharing burdens is one way of dealing with Aids, he said.

“I am not saying this from the book knowledge perspective but my personal experience from the time I shared my secrets with the school authority. Things changed my perspective completely. Suddenly, the school environment was no longer daunting for me to take the drug freely,” he explained.

He resumed taking the ARVs as school authorities made it possible for him to feel at home.

“Opening up is the greatest life skill that I have ever learnt, though in a hard way. If there are some students suffering in silence they should never hesitate but approach their school authorities. Don’t just keep it to yourself,” he advised.

Huxley Kamkwamba is head teacher of Likuni Private School, a boarding school in Lilongwe. He has come across students who are HIV positive.

“It will target the employers, employees and students. We don’t want students to fail to concentrate on their studies just because they cannot take ARVs for fear of other students. This is a situation that I don’t believe someone can joke about,” indicated Kamkwamba.

Realising the importance of securing a better environment for such students in private schools across the country, Independent Schools Association of Malawi (Isama) is drafting an HIV and Aids Policy for its member schools.

Already, the schools teach life skills as a subject. Kamkwamba hailed it, saying the subject becomes useful in such circumstances as the students are able to deal with various challenges of life.

Kamkwamba is currently chairing a committee that is drafting the policy.

“Their parents tell us in advance about their children’s status. This makes it easy for us to provide an environment where the students can take the drugs. What we ask is that the parents just have to be open,” advised Kamkwamba.

In a PowerPoint presentation titled ‘HIV Prevention Through Life-Saving Skills Education in Malawi,’ Miriam Chipimo of Unicef said life skills are one of the most effective tools in the fight against HIV and Aids.

“Life skills education started in Malawi in 2002 funded by the Netherlands to provide young people aged between five and 14 years with life skills to promote sustained HIV risk-reduction behaviour and to enhance risk reduction among youth of 15 to 20 years through promoting abstinence, delayed sexual activity and safe sex,” she wrote.

Taking ARVs at school should not be a problem; the school authorities are guardians who should be trusted with such scenarios.