Born With HIV and 26 Years Later Still Going Strong

On 1 December 2021- World AIDS Day - I interviewed Vengai on The Charlene Show. Vengai is a young lady who was born with HIV and now, 26 years later, she is still going strong. I listened to Vengai’s heartbreaking yet empowering story. How she came from denial to being sick to the point of death, discrimination, gender based violence, rejection, suicide attempts to eventually finding herself and taking her life back.

Gender inequality, violence, and poverty make women particularly vulnerable to HIV, and those living with HIV face heightened discrimination with cultural norms and taboos around HIV not making it any better for them. Vengai’s story teaches us that HIV is not a death sentence... there is life after testing HIV positive. She managed to pull through the huddles thrown at her and now at 26 she is living a healthy and happy life.

Here is the link to Vengai’s full episode: https://youtu.be/ViFIjqXJGeU. Let us join our hands to fight against this disease which is threatening many lives. Health is the most important thing for a person and HIV is the biggest threat to our health. Let us create awareness not only on World AIDS Day but EVERYDAY.

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