01/12/2025
The woman who sells pepper soup at my junction? She’s been living with HIV for 12 years. She still gives us extra fish when we’re short on cash, still glowing. My secondary school senior everyone admired? Tested positive the year he entered university. Today he’s a lecturer, married, just welcomed a baby, viral load undetectable. Chioma, my neighbour’s daughter, born with HIV? She just aced her exams and wants to study Nursing. She’s healthier than most of us. These aren’t statistics.
They’re our people. 40.8 million living with HIV worldwide many right here in Nigeria, on your street, in your family. HIV doesn’t kill like it used to. Treatment works. Hope is real. What still kills? Silence. Stigma. Side-eye.
So today, let’s do better by getting tested.