Union and cooperation - Essay Example

My fight against stigmatization “How much effort do I need to make, as an aspiring AIDS activist, to realize the cause of deepening suffering of the HIV/AIDS victims in the society?” That is the question I used to ask myself before having a one on one experience with an AIDS victim, who, in this case, was my cousin. While I was hanging on to my thoughts about the question, I realized that most of the HIV/AIDS victims I had known were always lonely. What if this could serve as the basis for finding an answer to my question?

What if I could develop a positive attitude towards the disease and view the victims like any other normal human being?. This is the journey I was to involve in, given that one of my closest relative and also a friend was a victim of the disease. While other victims were seeking help from the VCT, I took an initiative of always hanging around him like never before. I possessed the belief that efforts towards the victims were necessary. I was then the only closest friend he had, not even did he consider the help of VCT because of the stigmatization experience he had with one of the workers.

I always ensured that I paid a closer attention because of the health care adversities I believed are associated with the disease. Every day, I accompanied him in a 30 minutes run around our town just to keep him fit. However, for my mum and others they considered that there were meagre chances of managing the influence of the disease in an individual; consequently, there was no need for dying to care for my cousin. Apart from the care, I also took responsibility of reminding him about the importance of taking the treatments as prescribed by the doctor.

After reading an article written by The South African Medical Research Council I came across an English word, “adherence” which in the context was used as powerful medical glossary for the people living with HIV/AIDS (Gina et al, 69). Intuitively, I had to find a way of levitating the level of adherence within my victim, to ensure that he was always devoted to the medical advice. Further, I taught him the need for nursing hopes that there are still more days to live asserts that stigmatization.

Nonetheless, I found it hard to achieve my goal since my victim had the belief that the ultimate consequence of HIV/AIDS is death, as the result of the perception held by the society towards the victim. From this I realized that the discrimination by other individuals in the society triggers the victims into feeling that there is little hope for the futility of the medical advices. Essentially, my only solution was to distract my cousin from taking other people’s view and instead convincing him to concentrate on his own life.

I had to involve in strengthening the hope of surviving longer within my cousin as stated by Brennan (28). Finding out that my interventions had made my cousin to live a positive life, indifference to earlier when he was lonely, I devoted myself to fighting any form of stigmatization directed towards HIV/AIDS victim. All this I did singlehandedly, as opposed the perception that only funded organizations can fight stigmatization. This I believe: HIV/AIDS is a killer disease as the result of the perception held by the society towards the victim and not because of the popular belief on the power of the virus.

Stigmatization reduces the ability of an individual to adhere to the medical advices presented because of the little hope triggered by the society. Work cited Gina M. W,, *; Priscilla, R; Shani H. P, Ralph J. D, Coceka N, Nikia B, & Anthony D. M. HIV stigma and mental health status among women living with HIV in the Western Cape, South Africa. S. Afr. j. sci. vol.104 no.5-6 Pretoria May/June 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0038- 23532008000300017&script=sci_arttextBrennan, Erin A.

Stigmatization of Hiv Positive Individuals. , 2008. Internet resource.Liamputtong, Pranee. Stigma, Discrimination and Living with Hiv/aids: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. Internet resource.