Hani talks of living with HIV
MATSAPHA - “I put all my problems in a bottle and survived.”
This is the recipe that helped HIV Activist Hani Dlamini in dealing with his problems when he first discovered that he was HIV positive. He shared this during the Eswatini Business Health Symposium which took place at Esibayeni Lodge last Tuesday.
Dlamini shared that when he fell sick, a doctor at a local private clinic could not diagnose his illness, let alone administer any treatment. He said he asked to be discharged so that he could go home and recuperate. As luck would have it, the
HIV activist said there was a gentleman from Zimbabwe working at LaMvelase Clinic, by the name of Patrick, who came to his rescue. Dlamini said they conversed with the doctor, who told him that he was aware of his illness.
Lucky
Dlamini said Eswatini, which was then Swaziland, had not started talking much about HIV and AIDS. The activist mentioned that the doctor told him he was lucky to be alive, as most people died after being confined to a wheelchair. He then asked what the doctor meant, and in his response, he was told that stress caused many complications, according to the activist.
Dlamini disclosed that he knew which problems he had and narrowed them to five. Among his predicaments,
Dlamini mentioned that one of them was that his girl child had fell pregnant without disclosing who the father of the child was, despite months passing by. He said he took her to the police station and reported the matter. Even then, she still told the police she did not know who the father was, according to Dlamini.
“I got so angry and wanted to chase her away. Dr Patrick warned me not to worry about things that I couldn’t change. He gave me six months to deal with them”. “I took all my problems and put them in a bottle, where I closed them in. And I am alive today,” Dlamini said, to the applause of the room.
Recommended
Dlamini expressed that he was also recommended to attend training sessions on mental health at Cheshire Homes. He said he had to pay for it, although he could not afford at the time.
Dlamini added that there was an hourly rate of E30 he had to pay each day.
“I finally accepted that this was my condition. The stress I had caused an illness that destroyed the nerves. Luckily for me they were not completely destroyed. That’s where my mental journey started and I regained my nerves,” he said.