Video by Karin Bridger for JSI.
Sharon-now 22 years old and a peer educator with USAID RHITES-N, Lango’s Young People and Adolescent Peer Support (YAPS) program-was born with the HIV virus. Her parents, both HIV positive, died when she was a baby, and she was raised by her grandmother in a small village in Loro Sub-county in Northern Uganda.
Constant counseling at Lira Regional Referral Hospital’s ART clinic and a change of school, where the school nurse supervised her ARV intake, kept Sharon going. But it was peer support through social media that turned her life around a year ago. “I sat down and started looking for people who are like me on Facebook. When I found that there were many other young people like me out there with HIV, it was a very big shock. I thought, so I’m not alone! All these young people looking healthy and strong, looking good, even dancing-they are also living with HIV.”
Out of all the connections Sharon made on the internet, it was a beauty queen that inspired her most-Miss Y+ 2017. Her confidence and pride living with HIV made Sharon want to reach for the stars.
Learn more about Sharon's story: www.jsi.com/fr...
Learn more about our work strengthening the health system in the Lango sub-region of Uganda to improve access and availability of quality health services for individuals and their families: www.jsi.com/pr...
#Uganda #HIV #pagents #MissY+
---
John Snow, Inc., and our nonprofit JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., are public health management consulting and research organizations dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities throughout the world. Learn more at www.jsi.com
The author's views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International.
25 авг 2024
