Down but not out – living with a healthy attitude in an ‘unhealthy’ world

The National Health week kicked of yesterday, with a special emphasis on halting preventable diseases especially among women, children and infants. SAM NKURUNZIZA explores the challenges of a woman living with one of these diseases. Dativa Murekatete, a resident of Kicukiro runs a retail shop with a sewing machine from whose income she supports her four children, one of them already in secondary school. At 32, she is a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in which she was raped and infected with HIV at the hands of her family friends and a trusted neighbour. Fortunately all her children are free of the virus but the five year old she gave birth after the genocide is infected and Murekatete is charged with the responsibility ensuring he leads a healthy life as possible. Upon meeting, Murekatete slides into deep thought as she recounts what life has taken away from her. She recalls how she had been kidnapped alongside her family and kept hostage simply because she was a woman. “Women were not killed immediately. They were first raped as their children and husbands watched,” she says with a blank, distant stare in her face. She had six children but the militias killed two of her eldest sons before her husband who was killed slowly over a period of three days. Despite the sorrow and distress that characterise her life, Murekatete is a woman clearly determined to bury her past and struggle for a brighter future. She is on Anti Retro Viral (ARV) medication and has been told about a group of other infected people which can help give her life a new meaning. “I have considered joining the other people in any of the associations that have approached me even if I am not well conversant with them. By sharing experiences and new idea, I know life goes on,” The focus of this year’s health week is mothers, children and infants with special emphasis on promoting a culture of preventing the common preventable diseases. This is because motherhood forms a core part of all our cultures for which a child’s relationship with a mother forms an essential part in shaping ones life. Similarly most cultures in the world consider motherhood traditionally to be the criterion by which a girl becomes a woman, through which she acquires standing, respect and identity. But while a significant number of women have chosen not to have children, they still maintain their right to have children and few would assume it acceptable to take this right to choice of motherhood away. Unfortunately for the great majority of women among the three percent of Rwandans living with HIV like Murekatete, this has not been the case. The diseases which have recently contributed to the vast majority of child deaths of in the country according to the Ministry of Health are pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. Advances in scientific techniques reveal that women with HIV can give birth naturally to children, 99 percent of whom are HIV free. Doctor Fidel Ngabo, the Director in Charge of maternal and child health in the Health Ministry revealed that 27 percent of all Rwandan women have already stated using modern contraceptives. “The target is to have 70 percent by 2012 because it helps them avoid unwanted pregnancies and reduce the transmission AIDS from the mother to the child,” Ngabo added. Women in many parts of the world are facing mandatory testing during pregnancy. These testing policies are designed to save the unborn child and this should stay at the back of our minds as we celebrate the National Health week. Poetic_african@yahoo.com