HIV AIDS women beat stigma, all about Women and HIV/AIDS on Mywage Zimbabwe
By Wongai Zhangazha
The earth is parched but pregnant clouds hang, threatening to burst into a downpour. In anticipation of the cloudburst the people run in all directions for shelter, screaming joyously for the relief the rain will bring.
This is in Epworth, a sprawling settlement southeast of Harare.
On a dusty football pitch is a group of middle-aged women having a good time playing soccer, ignoring the threat from the sky. It is not just an ordinary group of women, they are soccer champions. They may not be as famous as Chelsea or Manchester United, whose players don designer label jerseys and football boots, but they have changed a lot of people’s lives — not only in their community but in Zimbabwe.
The team — ARV Swallows, named after antiretroviral therapy — has so far won three soccer competitions.
In the middle of the pitch, an outstanding voice can be heard loudly barking instructions. The voice belongs to ARV Swallows' captain, nicknamed China. China, whose real name is Janet Mpalume, and her teammates live positively with HIV and AIDS and have defied all odds by fighting the stigma and discrimination still associated with the pandemic through playing football.
Playing positively
Mpalume (32) tested positive in 2007 after she fell sick for a long time. She said: “I accepted it, and I made my status public. Coming out in the open helped me to be where I am now. When I tested positive my CD4 count was 131 but now it has been boosted to 469.” People with a CD count below 350 are entitled to get life-prolonging ARVs.
She said she went public to fight the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS in her community.
“Soon after announcing my status, some people refused to share a cup I would have used, or take anything I would have touched,” Mpalume narrated to the Zimbabwe Independent on World Aids Day. “It was painful for me but through football we have managed to tone it down. In Epworth, even now when I am drinking a fizzy people rush to share it with me.”
She said the community initially did not take the ARV Swallows seriously because some of its players were deemed not fit to kick the ball because of illness.
The team, according to Mpalume, is sending a strong message nationwide that women should not see themselves as victims of the HIV and AIDS disease, but champions in the fight against the pandemic.