Orphaned, raped and living in fear of deadly disease

Dec 1 2004 By The Journal

On International Aids Day, the theme of which is women and girls, Rhodri Phillips meets a Ugandan teenager raped two years ago, who is unsure if she and her baby are HIV positive.

The windowless hut the family call home is cold and waterlogged.

Despite the chill, 19-year-old Pauline Nakato (pictured above) is sweating as she nurses her 10-month-old baby Stella, recently returned from hospital after a bout of malaria.

Pauline was orphaned aged eight and has spent her childhood bringing up her six siblings.

When she was 17 she was attacked and raped by a stranger - Stella's father.

Pauline lives in Rakai, western Uganda, where HIV infection rates are 12pc, twice the national average.

She doesn't know whether her attacker was infected and has not been for a test.

Pauline, seated on the dirt floor of her hut cradling her baby, finds it difficult to tell her story.

At times she breaks off mid-sentence and shifts uncomfortably, before, head in hands, she begins talking again.

She explains: "I was taking firewood to the trading centre. It was around 8pm. The man raped me. He just grabbed me and raped me. I kept it to myself. I was in pain. I could hardly work.

"I did not want to tell anyone I felt self-pity because I was a virgin and had never thought about delivering at that time.

"When I got pregnant I felt weak. I couldn't dig. I felt fever and I had aches. I talked to a lady and asked her if she had any herbs so I could have an abortion but she did not know of any.

"I never told my brother and sisters I was going to have a baby. I spent just one night at the hospital. Afterwards I just walked back home.

"People were talking about how I got pregnant. They looked at me as a laughing stock.

"At first I did not like the pregnancy. At first I hated that baby, but now I love her."

Pauline recalls her attack and pregnancy in measured tones, but becomes angry when the subject turns to her future. She is adamant she will never get married. She says she feels helpless.

Pauline's mother died in 1994 and her father in 1995 - they were both HIV positive - leaving eight-year-old Pauline to look after her five brothers and one sister. She has been an adult every since.

Pauline's tragic story is unfortunately not unique in Uganda, a lush but troubled country, ravaged by disease, war and poverty in the last two decades.

The charity World Vision has intervened to help Pauline and her siblings, but there are many other families in Uganda crippled by HIV and Aids who are isolated and living in dire circumstances.

The image of Aids as a disease which affects homosexual men and drug users is a false one.

Throughout the world women are becoming infected in their marital beds and passing the disease onto their unborn children. A United Nation's report last week revealed that worldwide almost half of the 37.2 million 15 to 49-year-olds who are HIV positive are women. Globally, 39.4 million people are infected.

Joan Mugenzi, who carries out research into HIV and Aids at Makerere University in Uganda's capital, Kampala, says: "Most women have become infected in the marital bed. If they become infected and are not careful they can pass on the infection to their children and we have babies being born who are HIV positive.

"Not much has been done in terms of providing testing and counselling for children. You do not just wake up in the morning and test a child.

"Before a child is tested the parent or guardian has to give their consent and the child must understand what is happening.

"I think it is a case of anxiety, when parents do not discuss HIV and Aids with their children. They do not know how to deal with it. We know that talking about Aids is hard enough for an adult. But what about telling a child what is happening?"

In the UK last year 2,465 women became infected with HIV, the majority through heterosexual sex. Of the 49,500 HIV positive people in this country 13,752 are female.

HIV is now Britain's fastest growing serious health problem.

Mark Graver, a spokesman for HIV and Aids charity Terrence Higgins Trust, says: "Women around the world are bearing the brunt of the Aids epidemic. It is easier for women to catch the infection through heterosexual sex than it is for men.

"Also if they are mothers they may unintentionally pass it on to their children. Women are often forgotten about when it comes to Aids, but we know in terms of the people who use our services in this country many are women."

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World Vision allows Gary to sponsor a child

Gary Silver, a divorced 37-year-old personal development worker, has been sponsoring a child through World Vision for the last six years.

Catherine Natukunda, 14, lives with her parents and three younger brothers in Rukiga in western Uganda.

None of her immediate family has died of Aids, but many of her friends have been orphaned by the disease, and she was taught from the age of five about the dangers of the infection.

Catherine says she wants to learn how to make clothes and hopes to study tailoring at a nearby school. World Vision is looking into arranging this for her.

Gary, who lives in Clayton Road, Jesmond, Newcastle, says: "For me the appeal of sponsoring a child through World Vision is that you get to help an individual.

"You have a photo and you can put a name to that individual and you kind of know where that money is going to.

"In my line of work I help people to motivate themselves, so I am used to helping people. Sponsoring a child is an extension of that."

Gary receives annual reports on Catherine's progress and has watched her grow up.

He says: "It is fantastic to hear she is well. Someday I would like to go to Uganda and say hello."

For further information about becoming a World Vision child sponsor, visit the World Vision website.

Page 2: Gran sees Aids ravage family