Personal story: Chanda

"I was so worried about HIV. My friend’s mother had it and she died when he was young. I think a lot of people had it at that time. Although I had heard people talking about it, I still didn't know that much about HIV, I had just heard people saying it was something you got from sinful behaviour.

I started to learn more about it in school. My mother was very sick one day and I was worried that she was going to die from HIV. I was lucky. One day people came to my home and asked us if we wanted to test for HIV. I was so scared that I wanted to say no - but they talked to us, and my mother wanted to test, so we tested. They told us about the medicine you can take now that means that people don’t die if they take it. Hearing about that made me feel a bit better but I was still scared. I tried to hide my fear from my mother and the healthcare workers though.

In the end we were both negative, and my sister too. I couldn't believe it. I was so, so happy! Before testing, I was so worried I thought about HIV all the time, now I don't think about it at all. I know lots more about HIV now, and about how you catch it, so it doesn’t scare me anymore. I also found out that one of my friends is positive, I'm the only one who knows, but he is OK. My message to anyone reading this is don't be scared because even if you are positive, it is OK, because you can still be happy. So, I want you to know that."