For most Christians, the church is a place for seeking solace in times of difficulty, but this was not the case with Lissy Chigadu.
Dawati Village in the area Traditional Authority Chikowi in Zomba, in eastern Malawi is where she hails from.
Born in, 1964, Mrs. Chigadu, is married but has no children. She had one, a boy, but he died sometime back. What she calls her children are her sister’s son and her husband’s younger sister.
“People think they’re my children”, she says in a soft voice that indicates her kind heartedness.
Well, that’s our topic of discussion. We want to hear her story as we observe the 2010 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence.
Mrs. Chigadu is the third in a series of women telling us stories of discrimination and abuse they went through because of their HIV status and her story is just as touching!
“I was not told by anyone to go for testing. I just heard on radio one day when they were talking about the importance of testing for HIV”.
When she told her husband of her intention, he welcomed the idea.
That was in 1997 after her husband had suffered from stomach ulcers for a longtime. “We went to hospital and several traditional doctors, but his situation could not improve”, she recalls of the incident that prompted her to go HIV testing.
“One day when we were coming from Thondwe Clinic to collect medicine for my husband, we decided to visit a voluntary counseling and testing centre along the way”.
Results of their tests showed that they all positive for HIV. There and then a new life had begun for the two. Her husband was put on anti-retroviral therapy right away while she was put on what is called CPT, where a person who is HIV positive but has a stronger immune system is only given anti-biotic drugs to counter opportunistic infections.
However, in no time, her immune system deteriorated. She was bed ridden.
“As a devoted Christian, I asked our church (name withheld) to bring a player house closer to my house because I was very sick to walk.
“The pastor who was in charge at that time sympathized with me and built a player house closer to my home, where I used to pray people with people from the surrounding community”.
The situation changed, however, when a new pastor was posted to the area.
“When the new pastor came, I was open with him. I told him that I was HIV positive and that I wanted him to assist me in praying to God so that I can wipe away my worries.
“But I felt like I had given him a burden, because he asked ‘what would happen to the church if I die’.
“The next day I went to church I heard that it was being closed, because they could not entrust it in an HIV positive person who would die any time. They said when I die there will be no one to take care of it. I thought they were not serious, but eventually the church was closed!”
Now she says she travels a long distance to pray at the main church.
Earning a living through farming
To keep her life going, Mrs. Chigadu works as a farmer. She grows maize, tomato, pigeon peas, and beans. She sells part of her produce and keeps some for household consumption.
“Apart from this I also save money in our village bank”, says, “Through this I am able to have a balanced diet on a daily basis”.
A Call for Action
Mrs. Chigadu recalls one moment when a colleague refused to give her a handshake for fear of acquiring the virus that cause AIDS from her. “She just gave me the tip of her fingers. I felt so embarrassed”, says Mrs. Chigadu.
She adds that there are also people in her neighborhood who laugh at people living with HIV. “People call us names such as ‘living dead bodies’. When they see you carrying a handbag, they say you are going to get some units, meaning anti-retroviral drugs”.
Another issue that bothers Mrs. Chigadu is the tendency hospital staff that tend to look down upon people living with HIV.
“I remember one day when I develop some rush on my skin. I went to hospital but when I entered the treatment room in the dermatology department the doctor asked what I was doing there.
“I told her that I had come to receive medication, and he said, ‘what type of medication?’ I said medication for my skin disease and he replied angrily “you do not have mandate to enter this office, this is my office, are you undermining me?’
“I reported to matter to our support group, Hope for Life, and the doctor was transferred because it turned out that it was only me who had complained against him”.
Mrs. Chigadu says in rural Malawi women living with HIV have rights, though limited in some ways. She says they have the right to complain to various authorities such as police when suffer any form of abuse. There are also many support groups that assist women living with HIV.
They also get support from the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS on various challenges which we face, she says.
“For example, we went to certain village called Kaliwo, where we found that the doctor was closing the hospital much earlier and that he was telling more than one patient to enter the diagnostic room at once which was an infringement on the right to privacy.
“We also visited Namikango to find out the problems our colleagues were facing at their clinic. There we found that people living with HIV were being told to line up on a separate queue – which in a way was publicly identifying them as people living with HIV. We intervened and the hospital changed the system.”
She agrees with our previous diarist Mrs. Sara Kanthiti that male chauvinism is leading to suppression of women’s rights in Malawi. “Because men are said to be the head of the family they tend to do whatever they want regardless of the rights of women”, she says.
“We have seen women who are being HIV positive being abandoned or beaten. Men abandon their wives at will. This tendency is growing here in Zomba”, observes Mrs. Chigadu.
“However I encourage women undergoing such traumatism not to despair. Being diagnosed HIV positive does not mean death. You are even better off than those who have not gone for testing.
“We should report any kind of abuse we face, be it at the hospital or any other place, to relevant authorities. If we are complaining against a doctor and he or she does not change the bad attitude, we have the right to demonstrate as women living with HIV to deliver a petition to the district commissioner’s office”.
On domestic violence she says: “If a man beats up her wife, it is everyone’s responsibility to intervene. Let’s advice our friend accordingly and report the husband to police. Reporting the man to police does not mean that we want him arrested, no! But the police have the victim support unit which is there to settle cases of domestic violence.”
She says if the police victim support units were spread across the country, gender-based violence could be reduced.
“Men should take it upon themselves to discuss with their wives when something goes wrong in the family instead of rushing to beat them up”, she adds.
Women should also be assisted with financial support to start up small-scale businesses as a way of being economically independent, she says, because ‘some men abuse women on the premise that they cannot stand alone if they decide to seek divorce’.
Mrs. Chigadu has a piece of advice: “I urge all those who have not gone for testing to do so now, because if they have HIV and delay to start taking medication it would be difficult for them to recover when they get sick.
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My Survival Story on ZODIAK Online is sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa).
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