Widowed at 25, Were did not allow HIV to put her down
FOR Beatrice Were, 2005 was a year of recognition. 2005 was when the work she has been doing since 1993 was recognised by the British Council. She won an award for Professional Woman of the Year.
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
FOR Beatrice Were, 2005 was a year of recognition. 2005 was when the work she has been doing since 1993 was recognised by the British Council. She won an award for Professional Woman of the Year.
Death struck just when she had begun life. In 1991, she lost her husband to HIV/AIDS. It was the aftermath of this death that nearly brought her down. She tested HIV-positive, which was a heart breaking experience for a young girl who had just left the university! Already, fingers were being pointed at her.
“Widow,†some shunned the young woman. “Husband killer,†they said to the twenty-five-year-old.
Then, in 1993, Were lifted her head up and joined the Uganda Red Cross as a volunteer.
“I counselled HIV/AIDS patients and got involved in service delivery and community outreach,†she says.
While she was healing the infected, she was also healing from the shock of the loss of her husband and the subsequent discovery that she was HIV-positive.
As her in-laws fought over her husband’s property and her two girls, she still had time for more volunteer work at Nsambya Home Care. Her activism grew stronger.
“My traumatic years ended in 1994,†she can now afford to smile at the grim past.
The first International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) was held in Uganda in 1995 and Were presented a moving speech, which partly read like a testimony. She moved hearts, while hurting none.
During the ICASA conference in Abuja, Nigeria, late last year, Were was all over the international media. Her presentation on the role of people living with HIV/AIDS in prevention broke the silence.
“Many people started looking for me,†she says, smiling at the benefits of her activism.
So, when the moment came for her to be recognised as a professional, there was little doubt that she would beat the other nominees to the award.
Were beat everyone to the requirements. Her CV and biography are inspirational. She has been a professional for 14 years.
“If you had the power to do anything tomorrow, what would it be?†she was asked at the award-giving ceremony.
“I would end all injustices in the world,†she replied.
It is such a spirit that probably led to the creation of an NGO: the National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NACOWU) in 1998. The NGO mobilises people, especially women, living with HIV/AIDS to voice their concerns and get material help. NACOWU operates in 20 districts.
“We need to find our friends and take the challenge,†she says of the role of the NGO in fighting against HIV/AIDS.
Her experience as a mother living with HIV/AIDS inspired her to start the Memory Project, which was launched by the First Lady, Janet Museveni, in 1999.
It took me eight years to tell my children that I was HIV-positive,†she says without a hint of regret, adding, “The reactions were mixed. My youngest daughter was angry and disturbed. The first-born did not want to talk about it,†she remembers.
The Memory Project is used as a record for orphaned children. “It not only reflects lifelessness of living with HIV/AIDS but that it is not evil to live with it,†she says.
The project also puts children in important decision-making positions, succession planning and helps parents plan for the future of their children.
Save for being emulated by Action Aid, Plan International, TASO and World Vision, the project has carried its wings as far as Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the UK.
Were is a mother of three daughters – aged 16, 14 and four years.
“I remarried five years after losing my husband. That should explain the age gap between the second and last born,â€she says.
Because she swears to remain an activist for life, there is no need to ask her where she will go from here.
FOR Beatrice Were, 2005 was a year of recognition. 2005 was when the work she has been doing since 1993 was recognised by the British Council. She won an award for Professional Woman of the Year.
Death struck just when she had begun life. In 1991, she lost her husband to HIV/AIDS. It was the aftermath of this death that nearly brought her down. She tested HIV-positive, which was a heart breaking experience for a young girl who had just left the university! Already, fingers were being pointed at her.
“Widow,†some shunned the young woman. “Husband killer,†they said to the twenty-five-year-old.
Then, in 1993, Were lifted her head up and joined the Uganda Red Cross as a volunteer.
“I counselled HIV/AIDS patients and got involved in service delivery and community outreach,†she says.
While she was healing the infected, she was also healing from the shock of the loss of her husband and the subsequent discovery that she was HIV-positive.
As her in-laws fought over her husband’s property and her two girls, she still had time for more volunteer work at Nsambya Home Care. Her activism grew stronger.
“My traumatic years ended in 1994,†she can now afford to smile at the grim past.
The first International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) was held in Uganda in 1995 and Were presented a moving speech, which partly read like a testimony. She moved hearts, while hurting none.
During the ICASA conference in Abuja, Nigeria, late last year, Were was all over the international media. Her presentation on the role of people living with HIV/AIDS in prevention broke the silence.
“Many people started looking for me,†she says, smiling at the benefits of her activism.
So, when the moment came for her to be recognised as a professional, there was little doubt that she would beat the other nominees to the award.
Were beat everyone to the requirements. Her CV and biography are inspirational. She has been a professional for 14 years.
“If you had the power to do anything tomorrow, what would it be?†she was asked at the award-giving ceremony.
“I would end all injustices in the world,†she replied.
It is such a spirit that probably led to the creation of an NGO: the National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NACOWU) in 1998. The NGO mobilises people, especially women, living with HIV/AIDS to voice their concerns and get material help. NACOWU operates in 20 districts.
“We need to find our friends and take the challenge,†she says of the role of the NGO in fighting against HIV/AIDS.
Her experience as a mother living with HIV/AIDS inspired her to start the Memory Project, which was launched by the First Lady, Janet Museveni, in 1999.
It took me eight years to tell my children that I was HIV-positive,†she says without a hint of regret, adding, “The reactions were mixed. My youngest daughter was angry and disturbed. The first-born did not want to talk about it,†she remembers.
The Memory Project is used as a record for orphaned children. “It not only reflects lifelessness of living with HIV/AIDS but that it is not evil to live with it,†she says.
The project also puts children in important decision-making positions, succession planning and helps parents plan for the future of their children.
Save for being emulated by Action Aid, Plan International, TASO and World Vision, the project has carried its wings as far as Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the UK.
Were is a mother of three daughters – aged 16, 14 and four years.
“I remarried five years after losing my husband. That should explain the age gap between the second and last born,â€she says.
Because she swears to remain an activist for life, there is no need to ask her where she will go from here.