Saturday 4 July 2015

SUPPORTIVELY CARING




Imabong committed suicide because of the rejection she suffered as a result of her HIV status; isolated by her family, rejected by her friends and treated like a leper at work was more than she could bear.
When I met Luke in February of 2007, he had not eaten for 2 days; dehydrated and completely emaciated, he could barely utter a word. Abandoned to his fate in a one room apartment, Luke prayed for death but it never came.

The commercial drivers he recruited to run his small transport business moved to other cities with his buses leaving him with almost nothing.
As humanity confronts the AIDS pandemic stigmatization, misery and isolation appears to have taken center stage. While it is true that about 90% of HIV infection occur via the sexual route this must never be misconstrued for promiscuity. It is wrong to ascribe promiscuity to a woman who got infected on her matrimonial bed, a victim of rape who tested positive, or a victim of HIV infected blood transfusion. These people need love to overcome the fear, anger and regret. They need our care and support to move on with life.

The stigmatization and the excruciating pains of social alienation have compelled most victims to conceal their status while the malevolent ones continue to distribute the virus free of charge to
Unsuspecting men and women. We must be willing to change our attitude towards people living
with the virus if we are to make any meaningful progress in curtailing the spread of the disease. If most of us won’t seat on the same couch with someone who is infected, how do we expect other carriers to declare their status? Our perceptions notwithstanding, these people are still part of us and won’t disappear.

A planet without AIDS is possible, but to create that planet we must do away with the vestiges of the old planet where testing positive to the HIV virus effectively relegates an individual to the subclass of Human society.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result, we therefore need a new direction if we must make any progress. While we must be bold enough to confront the ills in the society that promotes the spread of the disease, we must also remember that we ourselves are not perfect either.

Quote:

“HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake

their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it”
—Princess Diana

HORMONE KINETICS




Few months to my Senior Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination (SSCE) my landlady issued me a sudden quit notice four months ahead of my next due date for payment, the old lady would have none of my pleas as she handed me the one week notice. Her son was returning from the United States and she needed to renovate the apartment for him to occupy.
I have been living alone since my family moved to Abuja. My dad was transferred to the Supreme Court and I needed to complete my senior secondary school (high school) before joining them.
Confused and perplexed I dressed up and headed for school, as I approached the School gate I suddenly realized that in the midst of the confusion I had left my school bag at home, such was my state of mind as entered the classroom.
I spent 9 days living in an abandoned car, sneaking in at night and rising up early to avoid any suspicion all in a bid to tell the world am old enough to take care of myself. During that period,
 I spoke to my father several times using the public phone booth without letting him know his Son was a homeless student. One night, as I lay on a mat inside the abandoned car, I could hear the cry of a young girl been molested by hoodlums, as her cry echoed through the darkness I realized I had taken a decision that could potentially cost me my life.

With mosquitoes having filled nights draining blood from my veins, and the bark of several rabies infected stray dogs interrupting my sleep for nine days, I gave up and sought for help.

The sudden surge of hormones at teenage age will continue to play an important part in the life of young people. As they struggle to come to terms with their emerging sexuality, many will make decisions that could significantly alter their lives forever.

So many interests compete for our young people, from drug barons to sex traffickers who are constantly looking for ways to revive their ageing workforce by perpetually enslaving these young minds.These recruitment schemes have polluted the blood lines in many communities transforming promising young men and women into lawful captives.

One of the greatest challenge facing young people today, is the large scale availability of half-truth’s and manipulated facts. If young people are our greatest asset in a war that must be won then we must be willing to extricate them at whatever cost from the clutches of those who seek to exploit their weaknesses and constructively engage them in the conceptualization and formulation of policies and programmes geared towards influencing behavioral patterns in
the society.

Quote

Shoving policies and programmes down the throats to young people has

never worked and never will
—Oche Otorkpa