Colleagues, please STOP trying to “cure” me of HIV!
I am very okay with my HIV status.
I am very okay taking ARVs.
Also I have been down that rabbit hole a couple of times and I almost died🤷♀️
It’s okay if you have a cure, but I don’t want it!
Allow me to re-introduce myself especially to the people who seem to be very rooted in HIV related stigma!
I have lived with HIV for 32 years.
I was born to a HIV-positive mum and a HIV-negative dad a discordant couple who loved and raised me through a time when there was very little hope and even fewer options.
I started antiretroviral therapy (ARVs) 20 years ago. Not because I was delaying but because the medication was either not available or simply not affordable.
In 2015, I chose to start living openly with my HIV status. Since then, I’ve told my story again and again not for attention, but for healing. For myself, and for others silently battling self-stigma and shame.
I live loudly and publicly with my diagnosis because I believe that HIV is not a death sentence.
My work is about education, visibility, and advocacy:
• HIV prevention
• The HIV cure
• Adherence and treatment
• Mother-to-child prevention
• HIV and travel
• And most importantly: LIVING your life fully even with a long term health diagnosis.
I also help people living with HIV find love, (at a fee) because we deserve love too.
I run a YouTube channel where I speak about all things HIV from science and stigma to everyday life and joy.
https://youtube.com/@iamabeautifulstory?si=GTvtYqxRMY2Eun4T
Let me be clear:
I am not ashamed of my diagnosis.
I am not unhappy with my life — no matter what some of you have tried to project onto me.
I did not choose this life, but I choose to live it beautifully.
I am greater than HIV everyday…..
And I will keep telling my story until we end HIV-related stigma across Kenya, Africa, and the world.
My name is Doreen Moraa Moracha.
And I am a beautiful story.
DOREEN MORAA MORACHA IS A KENYA AND WROTE THIS ON FACEBOOK
