Fighting Hiv and Aids Stigma amongst the homeless,

Last week Thursday as the Face of Winter Youth migrant Ambassador with team at Fashion Outreach Amsterdam we hosted a charity pop-up store for the homeless and the less privileged at the World house Amsterdam. The World House is a center for information and counseling for people in the Netherlands living with few rights.

Since my boys are on school summer holidays they offered to joinme to help out in the Charity store. This took me back to when I was young and witnessed my mother helping other women to give birth under the trees of our garden in my village. Our house was build by the road leading to the only hospital we had in Gihanga commune about 4 km away. Some people would travel from Buramata, Murengeza, Nkuzamuhari, Gihungwe and Mitakataka going to Gihanga Hospital. Sometimes they will be so sick that they could not walk anymore and they lie under our tree and i saw my mother fed some of them with food and water and later sent someone with a bicycle to the hospital to call for an ambulance since the telecommunication during that time was rare. I grew up seeing my mother lending a helping hand to others and that shaped me to becoming the woman iam today.

When my boys offered me to join me for our Charity pop -up store for the homeless, it brought back memories of my youth, I felt it was important to stimulate the young ones  to do such good work in helping other people in need.

We packed out bags full of shoes, clothes ,neckless and bags. we traveled from Amersfoort Schothorst with Train in a scorching sun. Upon reaching Amsterdam Central we transited on a metro to our destination which was in Waterlooplein.It was still a beautiful weather. When we got to Waterlooplein we realized the Exit to the World House was under construction so we used another exit which took us 5 mins to arrive at our destination. The boys were still exciteduntil it started raining. We tried to protect  the bags from being wet because we did not want to give away wet clothing.

My boys started telling me why this mama?It could have waited a bit for us to get there because the homeless deserved to have dry clothes. I said let us pray.We took shelter under a house with a tiny sight of the roof, at some stage we thought the rain was getting less but it kept raining harder. The boys almost gave up, we were all wet but i urged to pray.We asked God to take away the rain as we were getting late. The man who was standing next to me looked at me in weird way as if i was some sort of crazy woman as i kept calling on God to help us. After a while the rain stoped, the man turned and said "Wow it worked"

My boys said Mom next time ask God earlier before we get wet. I laughed and said i thought it was small shower but it went on and on. But next time i will ask earlier or maybe next time no to rain at all.
When we got to World House we met another team from Fashion Outrech Amsterdam  and we set up our Charity store. It was great to see people happy, smiling and really appreciating our help.

I am an Hiv Positive activist so i used the opportunity to give education on Hiv and Aids and talked about Stigma around it by sharing my story. I started to ask them how would they tell if someone has Hiv or not? One guy started pretending that he did not hear me whilst I was using my microphone, I started making some sweet sound whispering in microphone and asked if anyone could hear me and the guy said yes he could hear me. Then I continue the topic.

This time it was very special because all my sons I gave birth to after i was diagnosed with Hiv were there and did help meto tell my story. It was the first time i told my story in the presence of my boys. Everyone gave us an applause when i introduced my first  and second child whom i gave birth to after I was diagnosed Hiv positive. It felt like we were a ''STIGMA FIGHTER TEAM". I could read some faces like i was telling their stories. I was happy i could share with these homeless because if  some of them would be Hiv positive then it only meant they are facing a double Stigma of being hiv positive and homeless.

I feel this group deserve to have education on Health , Hiv and Aids and Prevention. Everyone deserves equal right but we alrways forget some group of individuals.
On our way home Akira my third child said to me"Mom I am very proud of you and your work"and then said Rio my second child"You are the greatest mom in the entire World, you have a good heart to help the poor people" Akira said again "We will follow your step when we grow up." I thank them for the big help in carring bags, the patience for standing in rain and helping to tell my Hiv story. They told me that they are not  ashamed of me because  I am a supermom for them.

If my story could be your teacher then let me tell it over and over !
Let's fight together Hiv Stigma and educate people in order to promote Hiv testing  among  our community.

Have a great week
Eliane.