Name: Josephine

 Age:17

 Hometown: Kampala, Uganda

 Number of years with EGPAF: 6 years

 Dance Marathon Color Group: Green

 

Josephine’s Bio

My name is Josephine. I am 17 years old and am currently in my senior four year at Caltec Academy, in Kampala, Uganda. Although I am living with HIV, I am healthy and doing well at school. I am a child peer educator and am no longer stigmatized by people, even my fellow students who tease me about having HIV. Instead of getting upset, I actually take the time to sensitize them and tell them about pediatric HIV and AIDS.

In addition to my studies, I am the facilitator of The Young Generation Alive, a counseling and support group for children. I act as a role model in the group, counsel the children, oversee group activities, and plan the meeting times. My participation makes me happy, and I enjoy helping and giving back to the young, HIV-positive generation.

I have also been able to attend the Ariel Camps organized by the Foundation three times. At the camps I learned how to speak and address the public and my attendance helped me become a child peer educator. At the most recent camp in January 2010, I was asked to attend as a facilitator, rather than a camper. I discussed my life as an HIV-positive adolescent and taught the children how to be resilient through the challenges they face living with HIV.

My dream is to help children living with HIV deal with the stigma they face both in the community and at school. My sister, who is also HIV-positive, recently completed her university studies and I hope that I will also live long and be able to achieve my dreams, just like her. After graduating, I want to join an international university so I am able to compete with children outside Uganda, and have more exposure to the world. Beyond attending a university, I hope to become a lawyer or a journalist one day so I can fight for the rights of the children and help create a generation free of HIV.

I hope to be able to visit America again as an adult and meet other HIV-positive children in other countries and share experiences on the different challenges they face.

I thank the Foundation for all the support I receive. In addition to social support, the Foundation has paid for my school and housing fees. I will soon complete my ordinary level schooling but am not sure what will happen since my mother does not earn a lot as she works as a peer mentor at Mulago John Hopkins University.

 

New!

HIV HIV HIV
HIV is a dangerous virus
HIV causes AIDS
AIDS is a bad disease
Oh what a disease it is

Many children lost their parents because of AIDS
Many parents lost their children because of AIDS
Our beloved ones are dead because of AIDS
Oh! What a cumbersome disease it is

Ugandans, what should we do to fight AIDS?
We should fight AIDS in the following ways:

1. By use of condoms
2. Children should abstain from sex before marriage
3. Blood must be tested for HIV
4. Blood must be tested before being given to sick people who lack blood
5. Pregnant mothers should be given drugs in order to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV

Our government, president, government of U.S.A., President Bush, doctors, nurses, teachers, parents and guardians, help us. We are dying.

We should KICK
We should KICK
We should KICK AIDS OUT OF THE WORLD