| Sports |
Spare a thought
By STEPHANIE WAIDE
As sun light seeps through the curtains of the small bedroom,
Taeni snuggles up to his mother’s bosom to hide from the light.
His mother pushes him slowly away from her and pulls a bed sheet
over him making sure he is comfortable.
She slides out of the green mosquito net and slowly makes her way
out of the room, careful that she doesn’t trod on Paul and Anna’s
feet.
As she prepares breakfast for the children, she whispers a prayer
of thanks to God. “Thank you Lord for giving me another day to
live. May it be fruitful. May you bless my children at school
today and keep them from harms way.”
She wipes a tear with the back of her palm, sniffs and continues
with her daily chore.
For her, every word she utters is from her heart, every day she
lives is a blessing, and the smile of her children is what gives
her the courage to carry on. She is like many in PNG, HIV
positive.
One will never see and know what it really is like until you are
personally touched by the experience of living, knowing and caring
for a person with HIV/Aids.
“For a care giver to see her beloved, struggle with sicknesses
that even medication can not aid, is a hopeless situation. The
worry, the pain, the hollow feeling that you feel, is agonizing,”
said a good friend of mine.
“We are all like Thomas, we will not believe until we see what the
killer disease can do. By the time we are hit with the worst and
believe, we will be too late,” she said.
A few years ago, I this courageous woman, who boldly talked about
her illness, and what it was like living with HIV and raising her
children. As this was my first time to meet someone who was HIV
positive, I was curious.
She chronicled her life and how she contracted the disease; she
stated that even her children suffered from stigmatization in
school, because their mother was HIV positive. I listened intently
with tears in my eyes.
“I know that, I will not be there to see them marry and have
children, but what I can do is to educate them and others to be
safe from the virus.”
“We cannot afford to look after more sick patients, and we are
stressed with our limited resources,” she said
My heart was heavy the whole afternoon; I never thought that this
45-minute talk she gave would change my whole out look on life.
HIV and Aids has been here for the last twenty years. While
thousands of kina have been used to carry out Aids awareness, PNG
still has one of the highest infected populations in the
Asia-Pacific region.
I was dumbstruck when I was presented with this information. They
may not be new to the ears, but when I thought about it again, it
meant so much more that statistics.
These were people who made up the population of PNG. These were
people who were infected with an incurable disease. My friend was
one that made the statistic, and they had a face and a name. And
at this very moment, a mother, father, brother or sister will be
dying from an aids related disease.
It meant that, unsafe sex practices, no condom use and having
multiple sexual partners will kill us if we are not careful. And
innocent children will be the victims of our generation’s
ignorance.
As I sat through the discussion, I looked at her, and thought of
her children. I met her later on during gathering, and I got to
talk to her more.
I was curious as to how she dealt with the news, and how her
children dealt with the fact that their mother was HIV positive.
She stated that it took her some time, to come to terms with the
situation, but she sought counseling and she turned to God. She
stressed that the only way to overcome the depression, the anger
and the hopeless feeling was to talk about it openly.
She said, the illness is not God’s punishment, as is commonly
stated. We are given the freedom of choice and we make the choice.
We have to be responsible, for the actions we take.
“I am infected because of my husband’s unfaithfulness,” she said,
“and I urge all couples to be faithful. Those who engage in
premarital sex: use a condom, or don’t have sex until you are
married,” she said. This was the message she continue to carry on.
Three weeks later my dear friend passed on. She developed an
infection in the chest from a cold she contracted. She leaves
behind her three children with her sister. The youngest child is
only five years old.
Although I never said good bye to her, I believe that the work I
do has carried her cry on and I hope the echoes of this cry will
continue. Abstain from sex, Be faithful or Use a Condom.
 
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