Y+ Beauty Pageant, a first for young men and women living with HIV in Uganda, took place at the elegant Golf Course Hotel. It was organized by my group, the Uganda Network of Young [...]]]> Last month, in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, some very beautiful people got together to change how the country views HIV.

Y+ Beauty Pageant, a first for young men and women living with HIV in Uganda, took place at the elegant Golf Course Hotel. It was organized by my group, the Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV & AIDS, under the slogan Beauty with Zero Discrimination,

In my country, to proudly get on stage, show your face and display your name when you are HIV positive is, believe me, a daunting task. I live with HIV and I can tell you it is hard.

The joy of life: young, beautiful, confident and living with HIV.

However, you’d never know this from the contestants’ smiling faces. Youthful, healthy and gorgeous, they walked proudly in immaculately tailored suits and stylish dresses.

Their stories were inspirational.

One contestant said: “I used to get sick as a child when I didn’t take my medication, but now you can see I take it well and am very healthy now.”

Sharifah Nalugo Kyomukama recalled when classmates at university discovered her ARV pills. She decided to disclose her HIV+ status, only to be met with a rash of discrimination. She broke down in tears as she recounted her experience: “Discrimination hurts and it is never okay.”

Fifty contestants, aged 16 to 25, rehearsed with the help of experts during two days for the talent and fashion shows, and 10 finalists were selected.

In the talent portion, they sang, danced, recited poems and monologues about what being HIV positive means to them. Many emphasized the importance of taking medication regularly and engaging in safe sex.

Sex is good

The glitzy event was attended by top leaders from Uganda’s HIV community and local celebrities who came on stage to sing, speak and advocate.

We even had commercial sponsors who were not afraid to be associated to an HIV event, which was broadcast on six TV stations and five radios.

When Uganda’s former vice-president, Dr. Speciosa Wandira-Kazibwe, walked on stage, she was a ball of fire. “You are all beautiful and handsome!” she cheered.

Wild clapping ensued when she told participants there is no shame in their sexuality.

“Sex is the most pleasurable thing you can ever have,” she said. She described her own battle promoting condoms, when churches, mother’s unions and newspapers castigated her for allegedly promoting promiscuity.

However, obstacles and criticism have never deterred this fiery woman. Waving a string of colorful condoms, she happily danced with the contestants.

Proudly positive: finalists at the Beauty with Zero Discrimination
pageant for young Ugandans living with HIV

Professor Vinand Nantulya, chairman of the Ugandan AIDS Commission, spoke angrily against the recently passed HIV Control and Prevention Act.

“Criminalizing HIV and AIDS is wrong, unacceptable and nonsensical,” he told the crowd. “We will not let them get away with it.”

The winners, Sharifah Nalugo Kyomukama, 19, and Ronald Juan Kaganda, 20, were crowned Mr. and Miss Y+ (Youth HIV Positive). They will work as ambassadors in a new HIV prevention campaign.

Sharifah, her tears forgotten, beamed as she received the award. Later, the crowd enjoyed revelry and dancing. We had a blast!

The Y+ Beauty Pageant will be back next year – a public platform where HIV+ youth in Uganda can fight stigma and discrimination and celebrate their lives.

Jacquelyne Alesi is a wife, mother, daughter, HIV activist and Programme Director at the Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV/AIDS, an organization that since 2003 works to improve the quality of life for HIV-positive youth in Uganda.

Back then, in 2009, her CD4 count was only seven. She was very sick and had some skin infection that made her look and smell [...]]]> If you had seen Rukiya when I met her, at age 2, you would not have thought that today she would be alive and well and at school, age 7. 

Back then, in 2009, her CD4 count was only seven. She was very sick and had some skin infection that made her look and smell bad.

Her mother had lost hope for Rukiya and brought her to our association. Although I am neither a doctor nor a nurse, I could help the mother emotionally. I kept telling her to love her child despite her ill health.

Doctors put Rukiya immediately on antiretrovirals. She recovered and has been taking her daily pills conscientiously ever since, along with her mother. When she is at school, the matron reminds her to take the pills.

Drawing by Delfina.

So hard to talk about HIV

Rukiya’s story tells us a lot about couples and HIV.

The mom cleans a church pit latrine and the dad is a bricklayer. The mom says she found out she was HIV positive during antenatal care.  But she did not believe the diagnosis; she was faithful to her husband and thought he was too.

Or maybe she believed it but did not dare speak. So she kept quiet about her status.

It could be that the husband knew or suspected he was HIV positive and he too kept quiet.

I totally understand why it was hard for Rukiya’s mother to accept her initial diagnosis or talk to her husband about it.

Women are usually the first ones in a couple to learn they are HIV positive, at antenatal care.

It is really hard for you, as a woman, to talk to your partner about your HIV status, and have him understand you, not blame you.

So a woman will hide her status, and this brings many problems. For example:

• Reinfection if your partner is HIV positive.
• Self stigma and denial – always blaming yourself.
• Violence, especially when a man finds out later from someone else.
• Mistrust in families, spouses blaming each other about who brought the virus into the family.

Rukiya was delivered healthily, but at age two she fell sick. At hospital, the child and her parents were tested. All were HIV positive and started antiretroviral therapy. I have stayed close to them, so close that Rukiya calls me Mummy.

The parents went on to have three more children, now aged four, two, and ten months, all born HIV negative thanks to ARVs.

I tell Rukiya that I am also HIV positive and I have a family, a job and a career helping other people with HIV, and that she, too, will have a rich and happy life. And she gives me a big tooth-gapped smile and hugs me.

I am so privileged to have in my life this child, who is not from my womb, but who calls me Mummy Jackie although I am not her real mother.

Jacquelyne Alesi is a wife, mother, daughter, HIV activist and Programme Director at the Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV/AIDS, an organization that since 2003 works to improve the quality of life for HIV-positive youth in Uganda.