Salut! Rev. Gideon and Pamela Byamugisha mark 25 years in marriage

RELATIONSHIP & DATING  | HIV/AIDS

After losing his wife to HIV/AIDS related illness, Rev Canon Gideon Byamugisha decided to screen for HIV in January 1992.

The test revealed he was HIV positive and he publicly disclosed his status at Boman House in Kampala, marking the start of living positively.

Shortly, Rev Byamugisha resigned his lecturing job from Bishop Tucker Theological College and joined the AIDS programme under the Church of Uganda.

Rev Byamugisha began moving around telling people his story, but some people did not believe him.

"Some young girls thought I was using it as an excuse to keep them off. Others become brave and constantly told me I did not look like I was infected with HIV," recollects Rev Byamugisha.

As such, they started engaging him in discussions while insisting that they wanted an educated and God-fearing person like him.

Rev Byamugisha ignored the advances at first, but later realized that they had become very serious.

"I realized it was becoming a big challenge because I needed love, which people were offering.  

So I thought I could make a mistake and commit adultery or kill people with my virus. I began praying to God for plan B because my windowerhood journey was getting challenged," he notes.

He particularly prayed for a woman who was HIV positive and had lost her husband to AIDS so that way, they would have a serious relationship.

The two-year search for a wife was rather tough on the canon until it ended on Pamela, his cousin's widow.