1 - Macleen lies on the floor with her cherished blonde haired doll, a prized possession, a gift from the photographer a year ago when the essay about the loneliness of AIDS amongst children was created 2 - A Prayer of Hope. A young AIDS victim clasps her hands in prayer. 3 - Angela, a 13 year old teenager sits on the only chair in her poverty ridden home cluttered with the meagre possessions of the family. She was born with the HIV virus because her mother did not receive the mother to child prevention medication. 4 - Innocent, an AIDS orphan is being counselled by a local AIDS volunteer in managing the challenges of being HIV positive and isolated from the community. 5 - Gloria has been HIV positive since she was 3. She takes a stroll in the woods with Jolly, the MUSCAT AIDS out-reach volunteer who she has formed a trusting relationship.
Since 2006, I have been developing ‘ANGELS at the edge of darkness’, a personal project that illuminates the plight of women and children managing poverty and the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
AIDS continues to be a disease feared but not understood as education is sparse and the medical councillors administering the drugs emphasize the peril of the disease being a death sentence to ensure the drugs are taken rather than widening the general knowledge of those infected.
In Sub-Saharan Africa the growth of children contracting the AIDS virus is growing exponentially, especially in rural regions where many women do not access the mother to child prevention drugs because they birth at home and not in hospitals. Their behaviour has resulted in a youth epidemic of AIDS. The most significant challenge these innocents face is loneliness, stigma, and isolation; they find it impossible to make friends. Thus, MUCUT, a newly created AIDS volunteer out reach programme has been established to reduce the stigma and provide critical support. Since its birth in 2015, with the seed money I personally donated, the programme has been instrumental in uniting children and young people with HIV/AIDS, providing a valuable support network, education and counselling in order to fight stigma and psycho-social trauma associated with the pandemic.
The local charity, MUCUT, now awaits a grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The aim of the essay was to create refreshed awareness of the perils voiceless children living with AIDS experience.