Whatever It Takes - Season 1 - Episode 9

5 years ago

Whatever It Takes - Season 1 - Episode 9

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Mweshi’s health improved in the following months. We had dedicated much of our time to making
sure she had everything the doctor recommended to boost her immunity. We made sure she had
a lot of fruits, vegetables and meat. In order to provide all that we worked even harder. My father
started teaching brail at a nearby school for the blind in order to just earn more. Father’s job made
a tremendous change into our lives thanks to Sr Mercy who had suggested it to him.
I decided to return to school but since I had missed a lot of classes I was made to repeat to the
sixth grade. In no time I caught up and was back on top despite the stigma which I had learnt to
live with. One day I was called to the head teacher’s office where I found him in the company of some white
ladies. He introduced them as being from world Aids foundation and they were in school for
thorough sensitisation on matters concerning the virus. They wanted to hear my side of story upon
learning that I had a teen sister who was living with the disease and that I had been subjected to a
lot of stigma as a result.

We discussed in detail and they decided we go together to my place to meet my sister. Their
names were Amber and Sheridan and they were the best thing to ever come our way. They met
my family and as they saw Mweshi the two women were overtaken by sorrow and they wept.

They requested that they stay with us for a fortnight to monitor our lives. In all that time they ate everything we ate, they used the same thatched wall bathrooms and lived cheerfully.

During this period a lot more people started opening up to us. They started greeting us whenever they saw us instead of the pointing fingers we always received. They made people believe in loving and embracing the weak in society.

Before they left, they returned with me to school and narrated to everyone on parade about the
importance of giving moral support to people living with HIV and AIDS. Afterwards they asked me to say a few words as well. I was nervous but I summoned all my courage and addressed my
fellow pupils.

” In the past few months I have been subjected to a lot of hatred due to the fact that I have a sister living with the virus. People scattered whenever I approached, they covered themselves whenever

I opened my mouth to speak. They shunned me in the most horrible way possible and I suffered
greatly. I absconded from school more often than I liked just so I couldn’t be judged harshly and as
a result I had to repeat a grade. But now I want to inform you that you can’t catch the virus by
talking to someone, by sharing a cup and neither by being in close proximity of some one infected.
People infected need love just like anybody else regardless of how they got infected because they
don’t stop being human beings. They are still as human as everyone else. Keeping them at bay
kills them slowly and just adds to their troubles.

So from this day forward I would like to urge you
all to show love to everyone living with the virus. Because we can only win by acting together with
love and compassion. Thank you!” I concluded and the school went wild with applause and
whistling. I felt great that I had a voice, a voice that I could use to bring about change. With that
said I was appointed president of the newly formed ‘ Anti-Aids club’
Amber and Sheridan took a lot of photos of my family and our home. They even short videos and
recorded their experience with us. When they were about to leave they handed us a lot of gifts and
promised to write and think of us all the time. They urged us To go back to church and suggested
we join the Roman Catholics as it was going to be easier to implement everything they wanted to
do for us . We agreed with them and bade them farewell. Six months passed without any word from Amber and Sheridan and we gave up hope of ever
hearing from them…