After losing a job, Musengeri vowed to give hope to others
Nov 25, 2009
When the dreaded HIV/AIDS tightened its grip on him, everybody waited for the moment he would breathe his last.
To commemorate the World AIDS Day on December 1, The New Vision, in conjunction with the parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS, will award individuals who have played a remarkable role in the fight against HIV in their communities. Profiles of the people nominated by the public will be published everyday until the end of November.
By Moses Nampala
When the dreaded HIV/AIDS tightened its grip on him, everybody waited for the moment he would breathe his last.
The average CD4 cell count among people living with HIV/AIDS should be between 400-500. However, David Musengeri, a client of Centre for Disease Control, Tororo, and a former local scribe of a print media daily, had a CD4 cell count of two.
CD4 cells are vital components of white blood cells that give the human body the ability to be immune and protect a person from infection. When HIV attacks and kills these cells, the person becomes prone to infections and eventually dies.
Musengeri, who worked in Busia, had developed skin rashes on the skin and sores on the lips and in the mouth and throat. He lost weight and weighed 49kg. A tender stroke with his palm on his bonny scalp would come with strands of hair. He was a popular scribe, but when his health continued to deteriorate, people started to avoid him.
However, nine months after he started taking ARVs, his health improved. He recovered his appetite and normal weight. The miraculous recovery soon attracted the attention of the district leaders, who, for a long time, had watched helplessly as his health deteriorated.
The local leaders and the local civil society have supported him in his AIDS awareness campaigns since 1997. He speaks during public functions where he narrates his ordeal.
His testimony has borne fruits. Over 20,000 people in the border district of Busia living with the virus are living healthy HIV-positive lives because of the seeds of hope that Musengeri sowed.
Alice Papa, the programme officer of the National Community of Women Dealing with HIV/AIDS Uganda, says when they opened the Busia branch in 1999, their main challenge was low coverage of the advocacy message, particularly in remote sub-counties and institutions of learning.
Recruitment of social workers to do the work yielded nothing. The organisation, however, conceived the idea of recruiting people living with the ailment and train them. “We realised there was need to impart communication skills in the new advocacy team,†says Papa.
The new advocacy team was to be equipped with public speaking skills. However, at the end of the induction of five people living with HIV/AIDS, only Musengeri proved adept. “The induction had not only moulded Musengeri into a wonderful public orator in key dialects, but also an icon, who gave hope,†Papa says.
Zewulesi Nafula, a cloth vendor and mother of two in Busia, recalls how depressed she was after testing and knowing she was HIV-positive.
She became stressed and vowed to starve herself to death. Relatives persuaded her to be brave but this yielded no results.
Her relatives approached Musengeri and asked him to speak to her. “I had thought I was worse off, but when he narrated his situation, I was alarmed and humbled. I called off the hunger strike,†confesses Nafula.
Musengeri’s health started to deteriorate in 1994. He lived in Masaba, Busia district with his siblings and parents. It was common for the family members to share syringes and needles. Even after the death of two of his siblings, they treated it as a natural calamity, and never suspected HIV/AIDS. However, by the end of 1997, his condition had considerably deteriorated. He had genital herpes, skin rashes, and sores on the lips, mouth and throat, fever, cough and other infections. He was always in and out of hospital.
Although he had formerly communicated his state of health to his employers, they did not seem to mind and accommodated him. However, when his condition continued to deteriorate, a relative ,who resided in Kampala, took him to Mulago Hospital. He was tested and found HIV-positive. He was put on ARVs immediately.
His health improved and he decide to go back to Busia to resume his work as a scribe.
On arrival to Busia, he reported to a local media agent. “I wanted to inform the agent that I was feeling better enough to resume work. At the same time I wanted to know whether there was any message from the head office,†Musengeri narrates.
However, the agent handed him a sealed brown envelop addressed to him. He presumed the envelope contained instructions on the next assignment from his employers. But alas! It was a sacking letter. “Hand over all the company properties to the local agent. You have proven to be lazy and you are no longer part of us,†the letter read in part.
He fainted on reading this. When he recovered from the shock hours later, he was lying on a hospital bed and had been put on drip.
He later managed to get over the shock and moved on. A month after he had resolved to commit his time and energy to advocacy, he was biten by a dog infected with rabies.
“I was walking along the village footpath in Lumino sub-county on my routine advocacy errands when a rabid dog attacked me,†says Musengeri.
He was bedridden for two months. His relative where worried that he was not going to survive.
Before the attack, his CD4 cell count had amazingly increased from two to 143.
However, contracting yet another infection and treatment saw his CD4 cell count rapidly shrink to 93.
“Once I completed treatment, my CD4 cell count rose again,†narrated Musengeri.
The National Community of Women Dealing with HIV/AIDS Uganda took him in when he recovered.
From the time Musengeri established his HIV status in 1997, his wife Jennipher Musengeri, a mother of six has tested negative, a situation referred to as discordance. All their children are negative. The couple is committed to safe sex. “The advocacy role has seen me fly to Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Above all I am able to pay my children’s tuition fess with ease. God is great,†he says.
By Moses Nampala
When the dreaded HIV/AIDS tightened its grip on him, everybody waited for the moment he would breathe his last.
The average CD4 cell count among people living with HIV/AIDS should be between 400-500. However, David Musengeri, a client of Centre for Disease Control, Tororo, and a former local scribe of a print media daily, had a CD4 cell count of two.
CD4 cells are vital components of white blood cells that give the human body the ability to be immune and protect a person from infection. When HIV attacks and kills these cells, the person becomes prone to infections and eventually dies.
Musengeri, who worked in Busia, had developed skin rashes on the skin and sores on the lips and in the mouth and throat. He lost weight and weighed 49kg. A tender stroke with his palm on his bonny scalp would come with strands of hair. He was a popular scribe, but when his health continued to deteriorate, people started to avoid him.
However, nine months after he started taking ARVs, his health improved. He recovered his appetite and normal weight. The miraculous recovery soon attracted the attention of the district leaders, who, for a long time, had watched helplessly as his health deteriorated.
The local leaders and the local civil society have supported him in his AIDS awareness campaigns since 1997. He speaks during public functions where he narrates his ordeal.
His testimony has borne fruits. Over 20,000 people in the border district of Busia living with the virus are living healthy HIV-positive lives because of the seeds of hope that Musengeri sowed.
Alice Papa, the programme officer of the National Community of Women Dealing with HIV/AIDS Uganda, says when they opened the Busia branch in 1999, their main challenge was low coverage of the advocacy message, particularly in remote sub-counties and institutions of learning.
Recruitment of social workers to do the work yielded nothing. The organisation, however, conceived the idea of recruiting people living with the ailment and train them. “We realised there was need to impart communication skills in the new advocacy team,†says Papa.
The new advocacy team was to be equipped with public speaking skills. However, at the end of the induction of five people living with HIV/AIDS, only Musengeri proved adept. “The induction had not only moulded Musengeri into a wonderful public orator in key dialects, but also an icon, who gave hope,†Papa says.
Zewulesi Nafula, a cloth vendor and mother of two in Busia, recalls how depressed she was after testing and knowing she was HIV-positive.
She became stressed and vowed to starve herself to death. Relatives persuaded her to be brave but this yielded no results.
Her relatives approached Musengeri and asked him to speak to her. “I had thought I was worse off, but when he narrated his situation, I was alarmed and humbled. I called off the hunger strike,†confesses Nafula.
Musengeri’s health started to deteriorate in 1994. He lived in Masaba, Busia district with his siblings and parents. It was common for the family members to share syringes and needles. Even after the death of two of his siblings, they treated it as a natural calamity, and never suspected HIV/AIDS. However, by the end of 1997, his condition had considerably deteriorated. He had genital herpes, skin rashes, and sores on the lips, mouth and throat, fever, cough and other infections. He was always in and out of hospital.
Although he had formerly communicated his state of health to his employers, they did not seem to mind and accommodated him. However, when his condition continued to deteriorate, a relative ,who resided in Kampala, took him to Mulago Hospital. He was tested and found HIV-positive. He was put on ARVs immediately.
His health improved and he decide to go back to Busia to resume his work as a scribe.
On arrival to Busia, he reported to a local media agent. “I wanted to inform the agent that I was feeling better enough to resume work. At the same time I wanted to know whether there was any message from the head office,†Musengeri narrates.
However, the agent handed him a sealed brown envelop addressed to him. He presumed the envelope contained instructions on the next assignment from his employers. But alas! It was a sacking letter. “Hand over all the company properties to the local agent. You have proven to be lazy and you are no longer part of us,†the letter read in part.
He fainted on reading this. When he recovered from the shock hours later, he was lying on a hospital bed and had been put on drip.
He later managed to get over the shock and moved on. A month after he had resolved to commit his time and energy to advocacy, he was biten by a dog infected with rabies.
“I was walking along the village footpath in Lumino sub-county on my routine advocacy errands when a rabid dog attacked me,†says Musengeri.
He was bedridden for two months. His relative where worried that he was not going to survive.
Before the attack, his CD4 cell count had amazingly increased from two to 143.
However, contracting yet another infection and treatment saw his CD4 cell count rapidly shrink to 93.
“Once I completed treatment, my CD4 cell count rose again,†narrated Musengeri.
The National Community of Women Dealing with HIV/AIDS Uganda took him in when he recovered.
From the time Musengeri established his HIV status in 1997, his wife Jennipher Musengeri, a mother of six has tested negative, a situation referred to as discordance. All their children are negative. The couple is committed to safe sex. “The advocacy role has seen me fly to Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Above all I am able to pay my children’s tuition fess with ease. God is great,†he says.