A few years ago
By CAREY RUDISILL
Staff Writer
At Monday's World AIDS Day, over 50 community members listened to Minneh Kamau talk about living with human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV).
Kamau discussed how self-worth, ignorance and substance abuse are linked to HIV and AIDS.
AIDS is the last phase in HIV, where the person???s body is no longer able to fight infections or disease.
"These three things go hand in hand with a person getting infected," she told the Driftwood after her presentation.
Kamau moved to Canada from Kenya in 1996 after attending a Vancouver AIDS conference. She now lives in Victoria and has volunteered with AIDS Vancouver Island for the last five years.
Kamau sees AIDS as a similar problem, no matter what continent a person resides on.
"The problems that face humankind are the same throughout the world. The approach to preventing HIV and AIDS has to be the same," she said. "Are people using substances to cover up something else like emotional problems or problems from dysfunctional families? If that's not nipped where it should be, the person is likely to contract HIV."
She said her own lack of self-worth was what put her health in jeopardy.
"I was insecure and vulnerable. I didn't know that my life was on the line," she said.
Kamau hopes other people find an outlet for voicing their feelings to build or maintain their self-worth.
"I recommend everyone has a journal to write stories down in," she said. "Illness has brought for me a realization that everyone is special and unique, and if each person took care of themselves with that in mind, it'd be a better place."
Kamau has known for 10 years that she was HIV-positive, but said she could have been infected earlier.
"For five years, I had no hope. The other five years, I had hope, medication, self-worth and a balanced diet," she said.
Kamau said the loss of her daughter seven years ago at the age of six made her stronger.
"She broke the cycle of abuse in my family," she said.
"I told myself I'd never yell at her and one time I yelled at her and she said 'Mom why are you yelling?'"
She believes that the nurturing of children is of utmost importance.
Kamau has spoken to Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) and Salt Spring Elementary School classes in the past and enjoyed the different interaction with a younger audience.
She recommends that parents and educators tell children and young adults how to protect themselves and not to expect too much.
"What I teach is that if you cannot abstain [from sex] here are the tools. This is the way for you to become sexual. See sex as a friend and we can get rid of the virus," she said.
Kamau hopes more parents talk frankly with their children and teenagers.
"These conversations should take place around the kitchen table," she said.
Kamau was one of several presenters and performers at AIDS Day events at GISS.
From getting educated to raising funds, World AIDS Day is for everyone