Tag: HIV Stigma
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Are We Prepared for the Next HIV/AIDS Crisis?
Uganda is being asked to take greater responsibility for its HIV/AIDS response just as worrying new numbers emerge. What happens if our health system cannot absorb the next wave? There was a time when HIV/AIDS was impossible to ignore in Uganda. It was everywhere. In our homes. In our schools. In churches. On radio programmes.…
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Faith Is Not the Problem — Silence Is
A personal story about the Church, HIV, and the things we refuse to say. I grew up in church. Not casually. Not occasionally. I mean really grew up in it—the kind where Sundays were non-negotiable, where your week was structured around services, youth fellowships, choir practices, and midweek gatherings. Church wasn’t just a place you went. It was a system you lived inside. And…
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The New Face of HIV in Uganda Isn’t Who You Think
I remember the first time I realised that HIV doesn’t look the way we think it does. It wasn’t in a hospital. It wasn’t in a documentary. It wasn’t even in a “high-risk” setting. It was in a normal conversation. A friend of mine — someone educated, careful, and fully aware of HIV — told me they had tested positive. There was no “reckless story.” No obvious mistake. No moment you…
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Undetectable — But Still Untouchable
There’s a quiet contradiction that no one wants to admit. Science has already solved one of the biggest fears around HIV. But society is still behaving like it hasn’t. We now live in a world where a person living with HIV, on consistent treatment, can reach an undetectable viral load—meaning the virus is so suppressed it cannot be…
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The Lie We Tell About HIV Stigma
I used to think it was ignorance. I was wrong. For a long time, I believed what everyone else believes about HIV stigma. I thought people stigmatize because they don’t know better. I thought if we educated people enough, stigma would slowly disappear. I thought awareness was the solution. But the more I lived with HIV… The more I spoke to people… The…
