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By Staff Writer
Raffingora – Zvimba North Constituency legislator and Ministry of Local Government Deputy Minister, Hon Marian Chombo has urged young people living with HIV to continue having a positive outlook on life and support each other in treatment adherence for healthy living.
Donating winter shoes to various HIV+ children and adolescents members of the Raffingora Adolescents Support group during an interactive meeting at Raffingora Hospital, Minister Chombo encouraged the young people to continue supporting each other on treatment adherence and healthy living.
“You are doing a great thing as young people. I urge you to continue supporting each other in ensuring adherence to your treatment and continue educating the communities that being HIV+ does not mean you are different. Through this initiative, I am partnering with you in demystifying stigma in the community and encouraging more people to come out in the open so they can get assistance,” she said.
The legislator also urged the members to also stay on guard against Covid-19 by getting vaccinated.
Minister Chombo pledged to establish a poultry income-generating project for the group.
A monthly feeding program for about six hundred adolescents who meet at the club monthly where they interact and collect medication was also launched.
“I will support you with sports equipment and start a poultry project for you. I have realized that some of you travel long distances up to 10km to come for the support group and collect medication. We are going to provide you with healthy meals every month during your meetings,” she pledged.
John Makomo, aged 21, said the support group has assisted him to accept his condition. He described that as a first step towards dealing with self stigmatisation
“My mother passed away when I was six and I got to know I was HIV+ when I was ten. I thought that in this whole community I was the only one and every time I was afraid to go out and mix with other age-mates as I thought they would not want to interact with me after knowing my status. However, coming to this support group has helped me a lot as I realized that I am just like anyone else and I am not alone.
“With colleagues in a similar situation, we are supporting each other and encouraged on healthy living. I used to be angry with my late mother but through the education and counseling sessions we get, I have managed to free myself from anger and I now have a positive outlook,” he said in an interview with this publication.
Minister Chombo spent the day interacting with the adolescents and children with accompanying parents and shared lunch.
“The initiative has assisted our community which even after long years of HIV, we still had problems of stigma and discrimination but through such support groups and education talk shows which engage the community, people’s perspective about HIV is positively changing,” Martha Foya a Raffingora resident said.
In Montreal, Canada, there will be a pre-conference event prior to the International AIDS conference that seeks to present, discuss and interrogate the state-of-the-field evidence base for HIV-related stigma. It will be a platform to discuss global financial, strategic, and programmatic efforts to contextualize, implement and scale up effective stigma reduction and mitigation interventions.
