Caroline Ayodo, a Kenyan woman who has been living with the HIV virus since 1998, appeared on Swedish national TV4, warning the youth to be careful about their sexual exploits because “love is blind”.
Responding to questions from an interviewer, Caroline said that she was shocked when she was first diagnosed as HIV positive at Huddinge Hospital following a series of clinical signs that, at first, could not point to any specific disease. She had just returned from Kenya and she thought that she had a tropical disease.
The Kenyan, who arrived in Sweden in 1978, says that she was infected with the virus by a Swedish man whom she had fallen in love with while she also narrates how she had to tell her teen-age daughter about her condition after she was told that she was HIV positive. She called her daughter’s father and when he came, he was equally shocked about the news.
For some time, Caroline said that she was alone, afraid and didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t thought that the Swedish man she fell in love with could infect her with HIV. She said that she was glad because she got help from the Swedish authorities, pointing out that if she had been in Kenya, she could have developed Aids.
Caroline warned her youthful audience at the studio to be conscious that HIV exists. “Take care of yourselves”, she said.
After she went public with her HIV status, Caroline said that she has been going around schools informing the youth about the dangers of the disease. She advised the youth to use condoms.
The Kenyan said that when she was diagnosed as HIV positive, she was lucky because she had integrated herself in the Swedish society. “It is not easy when you are black” she said.
Caroline now works at Noa’s Ark, an agency that deals with HIV/Aids issues while she said that since her public declaration that she was HIV positive, she feels free. She told her audience that she has had a love life after her HIV status became known to her. Caroline has appeared on different Swedish national media on several ocassions in the past.
“Gunilla”, an HIV positive Swedish woman who was also interviewed on the same channel in another segment profiling HIV/Aids, did not show her face to the camera while her voice was also distorted to help hide her identity. The 50 year old woman said that she has never told her children that she is HIV positive.
She said that she contracted the virus from a man she trusted. When they first met, the man was using condoms but later, the man convinced her that he was healthy. It is after they stopped using condoms that she got infected.
Okoth Osewe: makosewe@gmail.com
About the Author
