Stigma vs. AIDS and People of Different Characters
by There are many things in life that will kill you it could be a road accident a short illness or did you think STIGMA.
Nelson Mandela whose father died from HIV AIDS on his 91st birthday spoke out on the stigma attached to HIV. A lady from Kenya emailed me and told her story so I particularly thought I should concentrate my article from an African view.
Social stigma, a severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are against cultural norms. I fail to understand why being HIV positive should be considered being against cultural norm. Since when did having a certain disease become against cultural norms? But this is what most people leaving with the illness are faced with day in day out. In certain social groups its taboo to even think someone highly respected in society would be HIV positive
Stigma comes in many forms it’s not only HIV positive people., for i.e. there is teenage pregnancies, believe it or not old age, prostitution, etc I would say they fear, the feeling might be the same but what happens to people with HIV is always what stands out.
In Zambiafor example I read an article on a woman who went through the voluntary cancelling and testing (VCT) and on advice from the Doctors decided she needed to tell her family but what she got was not what she expected. She was abandoned and no one should be made to leave life in this manner. Women in African are blamed for almost everything in a marriage setting (I say marriage setting because not all are married), when they have too many children in a family it’s there problem. So if you are HIV positive as a woman you are to blame, if you have kids it’s even worse but not for everyone.
Most HIV people are in fear to disclose their status for many reasons such as not getting a job, not being accepted in society, being treated differently, worse more if you have children as the case in Thailand which I am sure is the same in many other countries. Though I do not have the full statistics I am sure there are a lots of people out there that are HIV positive but have taking more friends and relatives to the grave before them and yet people just assume you are a walking copse.
Liked it
