Bold girl reveals the agony of living with HIV in school

By Linah Benyawa

It was a moment of reflection when Dorcas Kawira told head teachers attending a conference in Mombasa about her painful journey through high school as a person living with HIV/Aids.

Some cried, others were tensed up and the guest of honour, Education Minister Sam Ongeri congratulated her for being bold enough to talk about what she had gone through.

As a student living with the disease, she had to fight stigma and sometimes, this drained her energy, she told the attentive teachers.

Dorcas Kawira, 19, who is living with HIV/Aids, talks to head teachers at the ongoing conference in Mombasa. She said HIV-positive students go through indescribable physical, mental and psychological struggles.[Photos: OMONDI ONYANGO/Standard]

Kawira, 19, was born with the disease, having contracted it from her parents – what is known as mother-to-child transmission.

But this did not lessen the stigma she lived with. Many Kenyans, including teachers, believe that HIV is transmitted through sex, stigmatising those living with the disease such as Kawira.

"It’s of great concern that HIV/Aids education up to now has placed more emphasis on sex as the main mode of transmission and paid little attention to mother-to-child transmission. As a result, those children born with the virus have ended up being ridiculed as having been sexually active when they are not," she said.

Kawira, who completed secondary school last year and scored an A- in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams, says her years in school were difficult because of her condition.

She recounted how teachers stigmatised her because of her HIV status.

Wish me away?

"I lost my parents when I was only six-years-old, but I have lived to tell my story. Once in primary school, a teacher told other pupils to stop sharing cups with me because of my status for fear that I could infect them," she recalled.

Kawira says many school children living with HIV/Aids suffer silently from stigma and faced dreadful experiences 25 years since the advent of the virus in the country.

"It is unacceptable that stigma and discrimination remains one of the biggest hurdles that HIV infected children face in our schools. The discrimination practices they are subjected to are too hard to bear," she told the conference delegates.

To avoid some hard questions, Kawira said she became creative, especially when she was absent from school due to illness.

"Teachers lectured me and demanded explanations as to why I was absent, that meant I had to tell them the nature of my illness which was quite a painful experience," she said.

Kawira explained that children living with HIV/Aids had a right to education and a healthy life adding that although the physical, mental and psychological struggle was indescribable, it was possible to overcome.

She recommended that sex education, reproductive health and needs of children living with HIV/Aids are taken into consideration in education.

The girl also asked the ministry to put in place mechanisms that would protect children living with the virus in schools, as well as building training teachers on the basics of supporting such children.

"On behalf of the children living with the virus, I request the government and other stakeholders to come up with clear policies and programmes such as child friendly schools initiatives that meet the needs of these children and implement them with adequate human, technical and financial resources," she said.

She added: "We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and wish away children infected with HIV. Together we must stand and face the reality and prosper as a nation to realise our aspirations and goals."