The story for Fungai Agatamwa

Fungai is an orphan staying at Chitungwiza. He is 10 yrs old, sick on and off, and emaciated. I met him at a Sunday service and was touched by his physical state; I had compassion for him.

So I talked to his care givers about taking him for VCT (HIV test). They did that and phoned me for the results - which were positive. Fungai got depressed with the results such that he stopped going out to play with other children. He started spending his time sleeping in the house.

I had counselling sessions with him but this did not seem to give him much light. I referred him to Chitungwiza OI (clinic) where they checked his CD4 count - it was 94. I then invited him to attend Africaid's Chitungwiza Support Group where he met other children who are HIV +ve and living positively. They introduced themselves and explained how they are benefitiing from the Support Group and being on ARVs (Antiretroviral drugs). He went home and told his care-givers that he would like to learn by doing his home work with all his effort, as he hoped to go to university. He referred to one of the children he had met at Support Group who was waiting for his Advanced level exam results. This child told Fungai that once he had been ill and very thin too, but that he got strong by taking ARVs and that now he was attending school.

No one knew that this touched Fungai so much that it changed his attitude towards life. He played with other children and had a smile on his face. This touched his care-givers and they phoned me to take Fungai to all Support Group meetings. To them once a month is too long a gap, so now Fungai visits my home now and then as well.

The day he was commenced on ARVs he was very happy and couldn't wait to express his joy, so he came to my house to tell me the good news of him being on ARVs. He said that what he was taught in Support Group about how ARVs work will make him take his drugs well.

Tawanba
Chitungwiza Support Group Leader.