3 HIV + Women in Kano

On a visit to SWATCH (Support for Women and Teenage Children), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), we met three women, all HIV + and in their 30's. they told us how they were initially led to be tested for HIV:

Zuweira, a beautiful Muslim woman dressed in a red hijab and gorgeous, curly Henna tattoos on her hands. The soles of her feet and nails on fingers and toes were black with Henna. With a quiet voice and head bowed, she told us she was tested two years ago with her co-wife, Fatima, after their husband died unexpectedly. He was HIV-. Soon after his death, she began feeling sick and decided then, to be tested. When her results came back, she was HIV +, and in full-blown AIDS. She also had TB. She smiled with brilliantly white teeth and said she is healthy now, taking ARV (anti-retroviral) medications. She is remarried to her current husband who is also HIV+. Their children are HIV-.

Fatima was tested 2 years ago after her husband was sick with hemmoroids, which led him to be tested for HIV. He tested positive. After his death, she married Zuweira's husband and their children are also negative. She is taking ARV's with few side effects. She and her husband are healthy and doing well.

Aisha, a Christian woman, was tested three years ago. She had been feeling sick, but her primary reason for getting tested was that her previous husband's second wife was HIV+. Her children are HIV-, and she is also taking ARV's.

All three women have lost their 1st husbands to HIV/AIDS and are married currently to people who are also HIV+. In Nigeria, HIV+ people are encouraged to meet and marry, and match-making is sometimes a service that HIV/AIDS NGO's provide.

Although ARV's are free in most areas of Nigeria, the biggest barrier to living healthfully with HIV that I have learned from nearly everyone I've met is their lack of potable water and adequate nutrition. Second to that is lack of empowerment of women to get outside the home and find employment to support their families, nutrition, and care.

These three beautiful women are lucky: they have love and support from their husbands (many times, Muslim men will leave their HIV+ wives), and their families. Times are changing in Nigeria. Many women entering polygamous relationships will ask the husband and wives to be tested for HIV.

Propoganda telling of HIV prevention, testing and compassion for those living with HIV/AIDS abounds. Stigma and discrimination are still the major barrier for people speaking out against transmission, or even telling of their own infection.

Nutrition must be a focus in Nigeria in order to get a handle on what is happening here. Sex and mother-to-child transmission are the two most common ways that HIV is spread. All mothers, regardless of HIV status are encouraged to breastfeed for the first six months of their childs' lives in order to arm them with the necessary immunities to combat the everyday challenges of life in Nigeria. HIV is second to infant mortality.

With the help of these women who speak to those who are infected and encourage others to be tested for HIV, and the countless others we've met who are training to be peer educators, somehow, this disease will be overcome.