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MALAWI: Esinati Chimpere, "Is it a crime to be HIV positive?"

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

"Some people here refuse to shake hands with me because I am HIV positive"

LILONGWE, 26 November 2009 (PlusNews) - The story of Esinati Chimpere, 29, a single mother living in Kanyumbaaka village, in the Balaka district of southern Malawi, reveals how stigma is refusing to die in some societies.

"I was expectant when doctors told me that I was HIV positive in February 2007. I was really shattered. For a single mother of five children such news was really disturbing. My husband had just died, which meant the responsibility to look after the children was in my hands.

"The problem is with some of my fellow villagers at Kanyumbaaka. They discriminate against me, they call me names. Sometimes I ask, 'Is it a crime to be HIV positive?'

"I did not choose to be HIV positive - we catch the virus through different means. They talk about me as if I was careless with life, hence my present condition.

"Some people here refuse to shake hands with me because I am HIV positive. They have a belief that if I shake hands with them I will infect them with HIV.

"Just recently my house caught fire and I lost all the property that was in the house. Some people were saying that it was better if I died in the fire because I am HIV positive. They said what good can I do to my community in my current condition.

"I used to [run] a small business that was generating cash to buy our needs, but I lost all the money in the fire. Life has become hard for me and my five children. My children are malnourished because I can't afford to buy food; we sometimes sleep on empty stomachs.

"I have tried to ask for assistance from well-wishers, but everyone tells me money is really tight these days. People say they have spent money to buy fertilizer as the planting season is here.

"It is the children that I very much worry about. My eldest child has abandoned school and he goes about asking for alms from people. I want him to be in school but he won't go to school hungry."

jk/kn/he