A return to youth – Raphaële Aballo, Burkina Faso

RAPHAËLE ABALLO, aged 47, is a beneficiary of Project Orange. She is separated from her husband and has five children and one grandchild. She began anti-retroviral treatment at the Oasis Centre a year before this interview. Madame Aballo was one of the few people in this project who was willing to be identified as HIV positive. She waited patiently to be interviewed, and when she was seated she presented a few pages torn from a jotter, which told her life story.

I have so much to say that I have even written it down for you. I am very happy to express my mind. I am grateful to those who are helping us to get this treatment. It is thanks to them that we are still alive, and hope to live longer. Without this treatment I would certainly have died and my children would be unhappy orphans. But today it seems as if I have gone back to my youth.

When I started treatment, I was really almost dead. I had a CD4 count of two. I had sores all over my body and in my mouth, and I was very tired. I couldn’t eat and had bad dysentery – something I had never had before in my whole life.

At first I had treatment for some of the illnesses but I did not get better. People told me to go for an HIV test but I was too scared. How could I go when I knew that I had no money for medicines? At the health centre they told me they would try to help me get treatment, so I got courage and went for a test.

After the test I was in a bad state, so the health centre sent me here to Oasis. I got treatment and food from time to time. I began anti-retroviral treatment about a year ago. The first treatment made me feel ill and I could not eat, so they decided to change the medicines. After three months I was feeling much better and had gained weight. After six months I had a viral load test and it showed that the virus was not detectable. Now I am waiting for the results of another viral load test. I am very encouraged.

During the disease I was very upset. My parents refused to shake hands with me. After I stood up, nobody would want to sit where I had been sitting. It was only my children who were encouraging me: they continued to sleep in the same bed as me. I am very close to them, and without their support I would have died quite soon.

When I began treatment I changed physically, and those who were refusing to greet me became friendly again. Some would even run and touch my hands to make sure it was really me. I would say to them: "Yes, it is true, God has let me live."

That is why I encourage my brothers and sisters to take the HIV test. Many Africans think about magic. They don’t know the signs of the disease and they think it is magic. I invite all people to come for treatment so we can eradicate this disease.