FROM THE EDITOR : HIV/AIDS is real

I feel fine. How could so and so have messed, weren’t they looking? HIV? What about it, I am too young to worry about HIV! What would HIV want with an old guy like me? Go for a test? What for? I would die straight away if I learnt that I have it! All the above are scenarios we come across when the issue of HIV comes up. No one wants to believe it can come into their lives. But HIV/AIDS is part of everyone’s lives. We have brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, friends, and schoolmates, colleagues, living with it, knowingly or unknowingly. So, one does not have to be infected in order for HIV to be in their lives. It’s here, it’s a reality. We need to boldly and prudently face it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s support those with it. Let’s encourage those living with HIV to look to a future and not make them feel like death is just around the corner. Death can be around the corner for anyone with the wrong attitude. A very healthy person can be killed by a truck, from around the corner. You don’t have to think about death because you are HIV positive and neither should people look at an HIV positive person in that dim light! Today, we’ll bring to you Marvelyn Brown from the USA. She contracted HIV in her teens. She contemplated death and instead of feeling angry for missing her chance when she was involved in an accident, she instead got inspired to live. She is telling people all over the world, her story about her life with HIV with the hopes of stopping HIV in the world. She is currently telling her story right here in Kigali. Read on, Editor