26/02/2013
Debbie* is in her 40s, she is not
married, has no children and lives alone. She is HIV positive and for the past
7 years has been taking ART. She was up-rooted from her family when she was
very young, she does not know any of her relatives or even where she is from.
She has lived in Awassa for most of her life, although she struggles to speak
Amharic, and has no education.
Due to circumstance she ended up being
a street sex worker. This type of work is very dangerous here, she has been
left sterile and with HIV due to it. She now does daily domestic work, washing
clothes, grinding barley, and preparing food for anyone who will employ her.
Generally she can only get work if people do not know her status or her working
past.
She was previously employed by a woman
with a family to help around the home on a permanent basis, but when the woman
died her children evicted her, not wanting someone who was HIV positive in
their home – just one of the examples of discrimination she suffers regularly.
Her OSSA counsellor provides her
companionship, she has no close friends in the community and so has little
interaction socially. In the past she had received some financial support from
OSSA, but as will many of the cases I have met, this was a one off occurrence
some years ago.
Kx
*names have been changed to protect
identity
No comments:
Post a Comment