An interview with one HIV positive woman

An HIV positive lives her life positively!!!
Today I went to the HIV/AIDS clinic in the Matahre slum. I had a quite encouraging and inspiring conversation with a HIV positive patient. She has four children, fortunatelly, who are all HIV negative. The time when she realized she was pregenat, she was tested HIV positive. She is from a very poor family so she was forced to pracice prostitution when she was quite young. And then, she decided to join Kanua hospital, a well-organized NGO which I’ve visited before, where she learned how to take care herself and other patients. That’s why she doesn’t get AIDS and she can be productive to raise four children.
Now she stays in Matahre, renting a house with her family. I can’t believe that she has to pay the rental 1500 NT per month. At the daytime, her husband and she run a small restaurant at home; when the dawn comes, she will remove the facilities of restaurant and lay the matress for her children to sleep.
For the HIV positive patients, sex is always a problem between the couples. At the beginning, her husband refused to use condom at the beginning. Therefore, her husband always slept outside; what’s worse, they even met only once a month. In order to save her marriage, she tried to pursuade her husband using condoms. She succeeded!!! She used the knowledge she learned from the hospital and made her life happy. At the end of the interview, I asked her ‘Are you happy with your life now?’ ‘I am very happy even though sometimes I have hard time paying rent and tuition.’ Now, she uses her spare time working for the school of the hospital. She goes there to see if the school children (most of them are vulnerable or HIV positive) take the medicine and have food.
I am so happy that she can stand up from the bleak time and be able to help others as well.

Poverty and the lack of capital to start the business is always the problem in the slum. No matter where I go, the doctor, the diretor of school and students all ask the money from us, which make me feel very sad. They tend to rely on other’s help and donation. Nobody in the slum is entrepreneurial. They know there will be always somebody coming to help them, so they just keep waiting for foreign donation or volunteers, most of whom come and go, just staying in few months. There are so many needs but supplies are limited. Everyone in the slum needs money. The government won’t put more to develop the slum; even though they did spare some capital, which isNow I am teaching business in the slum, but I will think about teaching them how to lead a life aggressively first. Maybe the 7 habits could be a good idea!!!