HIV

They're the one bunch of people I haven't told, my parents. Partly because I couldn't face the faffing. They came down… When I was first ill, they came down. And I had to… And I just wanted to sit and talk. And… But my mother insisted on cooking a huge meal and having a proper Sunday thing. And we had to get the table out. 

And when they'd gone I spent 2 days in bed. So when I was in hospital next time, I said to them, 'Don't come down.'

I, I just didn't want to see them. I didn't want anybody who…like, like were getting in the way. I mean I've got better now. And I don't see why I should lump my worries onto them in their old age. They… It's not, it's not their problem. 

If it gets to be a position where I am ill or, or had a terminal illness, then that's, that's the time to tell them. I don't see why I should dump on them… I've told my sister. Because I thought I should tell somebody. And I also needed to talk to somebody.

What happens when he gets to those stages? Adolescence and he's a teenager. It's going to be very hard for him to cope. I don't know how he's going to cope, we don't know. 

In a sense we almost, hopefully this psychiatric thing we're going to go through may help but, it's one thing that we've sort of pushed under the carpet at the moment. None of us know what to do we… just, are just, totally snookered. We don't know how to handle this child when he starts asking the questions. Fortunately he hasn't started asking the questions yet. And fortunately as we know and as... professionals know... I know he can't affect another child by just playing with them or swimming with them. 

So we don't have to tell other parents that, that he's got his problem because we're not putting their children at risk so that's OK. But the thing of, I mean he always has to, for example as I said earlier, he has to be with us all the time because we have his, provide his medication for him all the time. 

Well he's getting to the age where he'll want to go away you know what I mean like other kids, want to. I want to be away from me for a week, go and sleep over for three days, he can't do that. And how do you solve those issues when those issues start coming to the fore when he's a... Our, you know his grandmother says, 'Why don't you leave him here?'

I mean sometimes they would say to us, like in the summer holidays, [grandparents] they say to us why don't you leave him here? We would love to, in any normal circumstance we would have left him in Africa for a month to be with his grandparents to be with his uncles, to stay there. And we could come here and actually have a break from him for, for a month and, you know, we can't. Because he has to have his medication, he has to come back, he has to come back, back with us, he can't stay, he can't stay with them. 

Telling my child about my HIV, it worries me, but the way I've chosen to deal with it, the way I intend to deal with it, is to start to explain to him as early as possible so it's not so much of a shock. I know a few women are really scared of telling their children and they don't want to tell their children at all. 

But children can hear things and they can pick things up very easily, and other… from other members of the family they might start talking and a child just hears what they say. And they start to suspect that something isn't right and they might start acting up in their behaviour, yeah. So I've decided that as early as possible, I'll start to hint the fact that I've got a medical problem. I won't tell him exactly what it is. 

Again, that's because he might go to the playground and just say it out you know, and then he'll be discriminated against and I don't want that, yeah… Some [women with HIV] have told their children quite easily, they've just told their children when they were diagnosed and again, some have not. 

Yeah, and the ones that have not are really, really scared you know. And it's only because they care for their children, they don't want them to be hurt or whatever so they think it's better. 

You know disclosing to children it would not really be a priority. But if one feels that it's something that is helpful then you, you can go ahead and tell them. 

Because you know you, you are looking at you know them having a tender mind and also you must think how they will handle it. Just like one of them he mentioned maybe they could pass it over to other friends. But even themselves because you see, they have still education and receive the education which still portrays this illness as a dying illness. 

So if… in apparently a child's mind will know that, my mummy or daddy may be dying. I think it weakens their moral and spiritual health in, mentally and emotionally. They will actually not perform very well in school setting. Because if you look at child psychology, you will discover that they've got different stages in which they can handle certain things. But in a big situation like this one, whereby even elder people like me, who has it , cannot handle it very well, I, I don't see how… a child can, can really handle it… But if disclosing is one way in which you can strengthen them, then do it.