Did you know?
Do you know how you would raise an HIV positive child? I read an article online, it was an interview with a mother of an HIV positve child. The mother, Maria, believes that she transmitted HIV to her daughter in infancy when she breastfed her. She was living with an abusive man and finally decided to leave. She got into contact the Community Planning Council and got tested for HIV. She was breastfeeding her daughther then and got her tested. She came back positive, as well. She then got in contact with an organization called GMHC - Gay Men's Health Crisis. They've helped her get on her feet and make a nice life for her and her children. Maria told her daughter about their status when she was only five years old. At first, she was scared, but then she became comfortable with it. Together, they rally for HIV and AIDS. Maria says that her daughter wants to be a lawyer for kids with AIDS. She's been through tough discrimination and has come out stronger.
http://www.gmhc.org/health/women/positive_children.html
This article and this week's QOTW has gotten me to think about raising HIV positive children. I imagine that it would be very hard to do - emotionally, physicall, aand mentally. This weeks QOTW was about finding out that your HIV positve child had just bitten another child and the principal wanted to reveal the status to the other child's parents. After days of thinking about it, I decided that I think in the end the truth should be told, but I would want to be the one to tell the parents. In this day in age, I would like to think that respect and privacy still exist. I would like to think that the parents of the other child would respect my honesty and not reveal this info with anyone else. In the artive that I read, the mother and daughter are very open about their HIV positive status. I completely respect them for that, but I think I would be afraid to be so open about something like that for fear of being stigmatized. Her daughter has suffered lots of discrimination and that did make her a stronger person, but I would be afraid of having my children stereotyped. I know that I would not treat my children any different, but the sad reality is, that not everyone has the same heart. Children can be cruel and that can damage another child's self esteem and self worth.
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I find it great that she turned to a group of people who you would think might not want anything to do with her because she doesn't fit a specific sexual preference but they still helped her anyway. That's heart breaking to learn that you have given HIV to one of your children. Even though she is only 5 years old, I have a feeling that the true impat will not set in until much later in life. It is good to hear that she is staying connected with the diseases, I always said if I was positive I would dedicate the rest of my life to find a cure.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing that her child has such great aspirations to help other children who deal with the same discrimination she deals with on a daily basis. I find that sense of strength and power in a child empowering. We could all learn something from this child's dedication.
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