On the 1st of December it is World HIV AIDS Day.
Hai Sibo! I hear you say. What does a little girl like you know about HIV AIDS?
It all started when I found out that my friend Lizzie’s brother is HIV positive. Strangely enough – because her brother is positive – a lot of people thought that it was bad to be friends with Lizzie.
What a lot of rubbish!
It’s okay to be friends with people who have family members who are HIV positive. It’s also okay to be friends with the people themselves who are HIV positive. In fact they really need friends – lots of them. It can be seriously depressing to find out that you have been diagnosed with such a thing and having all your friends run away from you is the last thing on earth that you need.
It’s terrible to think, in this day and age of social media, television, radio, cell phones and goodness knows what else – that people still think that they can get sick just by being in the same room as somebody who is HIV positive. Or by sitting on the same toilet, or using the same dishes. Or drinking from the same water fountain or using the same gym equipment. You can hug or kiss a person who is HIV positive and hold their hand too.
Sometimes when the person’s employer finds out that they are HIV positive they even go so far as to fire them – just when they need their medical aid and all the support that they can get.
You need to eat the right food – good nutritional stuff that builds up your body – no junk food. We shared our veggies with Lizzie’s family. It’s important to eat lots of fruit and veggies. But then it’s important for everybody to eat fruit and veggies – not just those who are HIV positive.
Okay – so Lizzie’s brother was stupid. He’d been doing drugs and got the virus from sharing a needle with somebody who was HIV positive. Doing drugs is wrong – we all know that. Not only using needles but sniffing, snorting, smoking – all that stuff is just silly. Plus it’s a waste of your good hard earned cash and it messes your life up so much more than you could ever imagine.
Visit my website and join our readathon on 1st December. You will be able to read Sibo Thinks Positively – free of charge. On your computer, cell phone, tablet or whatever!
Be nice people,
Sibo