Gulu children orphaned by HIV/AIDS struggle to survive

Dec 01, 2011

Innocent Komakech, 14, has been the guardian of his two younger sisters since 2007 when their parents died of HIV. At his age Komakech looks five years older than his age.

By Alex Otto
 
Innocent Komakech, 14, has been the guardian of his two younger sisters since 2007 when their parents died of HIV. At his age Komakech looks five years older than his age.
 
With hope of having only one meal a day, Komakech and the two sisters, aged 10 and 6 still have to take their Antiretroviral drugs regularly.
 
“You have to take medication as required, but sometimes you have to take it on an empty stomach, but I usually try to spare some food for at least a meal a day,” says Komakech.
 
The trio lost both parents to HIV/AIDS in 2007 and their only hope in life; their grandmother, died in August this year.
 
"My dad and mum all died and even my brother Okot Brian passed away early this year after falling sick. I do my best to make sure me and my sisters get scholastic materials,” says Komakech, who fetches water and makes bricks to get at least sh2000 a day. It is on this money that the three live.
 
Komakech is in primary 5 and his two sisters are in primary 3 and 1 in Gulu Baptist primary school. He says he faces a lot of stigma from fellow pupils and sometimes teachers which is affecting his performance in school.
 
“It was last year, this teacher would talk too much about me and when I make any slight mistake, he called me names, just because I am HIV positive. I failed his subject last term because I never concentrated in class,” Komakech narrates his ordeal in school.
 
Komakech says his performance only improved when the social studies teacher was transferred.
 
But Komakech has now accepted his status as an HIV positive child, after getting counseling from Health Alert, a local NGO that helps HIV positive children live positively. 
 
Walter Anywar, a program officer in Health Alert says that Komakech’s case is one of the hundreds that exist in Gulu, Nwoya and Amuru districts.
 
“We have built pit latrines and houses for orphaned children because of stigmatization they faced in using community latrines,” said Anywar.
 
Komakech however says many children and even adults still stare at them in an awkward way whenever they are passing near their homes.
 
Komakech’s Aunt Jennifer Piloya sells food crops at the road side in Layibi along the Gulu-Kampala Highway. Piloya herself takes care of 13 other children and is unable to extend further help to her nephew Komakech and his sisters.
 
“My mother had 7 children, they all died and I am the only one remaining, and the children that i take care of are my late sisters’ children, it is not easy living this way, but we have nothing to do,” she said.
 
According to Gulu district HIV focal person John Charles Luwa, the district has an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of12.9% which is way above the national rate over 6%.

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