Young Aids activist calls on others to know status
Brown found out as a teen she was born with HIV
A young activist who was born with HIV/Aids is using her extraordinary life story to educate people about the disease.
Saidy Brown from Itsoseng in the North West was 14 years old when she discovered that she was HIV positive.
Brown, now 23 years old, spoke to Sowetan ahead of the 30th annual World Aids Day tomorrow.
HIV/Aids continues to be a global health challenge, killing one million people every year, according to the World Health Organisation.
This year the theme for the campaign is “Know your status”.
Yesterday, Brown recalled the shock of finding out that she was HIV positive in 2009 when she was a grade 10 pupil.
“I was confused because in my mind I had been living life by the book. After finding out, I wanted to cry and break down,” Brown said.
She said this happened when she was attending a Youth Month celebration with pupils from her school. Brown said there was a health organisation which was offering testing and counselling to young people at the event.
She never expected her results to be positive.
“I wasn’t dating or having sex. I went in there not expecting my results to come out like that,” Brown said.
Confused and afraid, Brown hid her HIV status from her family and friends.
“I just kept everything to myself and carried on with life as if nothing happened.”
Brown said she gathered the courage to tell her teacher in 2009 who later informed her aunt.
“It dawned on me that I had to tell someone about this,” she said.
Brown said her aunt then explained to her that both her parents had died of Aids.
“But she wasn’t aware that I was also infected. I found out that I was born with it,” Brown said.
She said her tough journey with the virus had inspired her to educate young people through an organisation called South African Youth Positive, and social media pages.
Last year Brown received the Youth for Change HIV/Aids Activist Award and was also mentioned in the Mail
& Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans.
“I have learnt that we have to start more conversations about Aids,” Brown said.
The department of health has invited members of the public to attend an awareness event at the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto tomorrow and is urging people to get tested.
Brown said her life was a reflection that people can contract the virus through different ways.
“We need to stop associating HIV with promiscuity,” Brown said.