PATRICIA'S STORY: From devastation to new-found joy

Abused and beaten by her husband, she seemed to have little hope. Now, three years on, she runs a thriving school, she is in a new relationship and – despite both her and her partner Wilberforce being HIV positive – she is about to have a healthy baby.

“When I was sick, my husband used to tell me to go home, back to my parents, because I was not able to work or have sex with him,” says Patricia, 33, who lives in Usenge with her son Lamek, 11, and daughter Florence, three.

“He used to beat me and would never discuss my sickness. I decided to stay away from him but I went to hospital when I was single. My husband has now been gone three or four years, and I do not know or care where he is.”

She has known Rogers for many years but first worked with him in 2005, and she credits him with helping her turn her life around.

He prepared her mentally before she was tested, in 2008, counselled her when the result came back, and continues to meet with her twice a month.

“Rogers gave me advice and told me not to feel lonely,” she says. “He said if I tested positive I would not be the first or last to be. He has been a good family friend to me, giving me good advice, and giving me good drugs.

“He helps me a lot by giving me advice. When you are tested positive you feel neglected but when I told him, he told me to feel okay.”

She tested positive in 2008 and believes she was infected by her cheating husband but, to her relief, her children are both negative.

“I was tested positive, my children were tested negative. I said “Thank God”. I am thanking God for that.”

She told Lamek immediately, but he has understood only for the past year or so. “In 2010, he started getting some news from the radio,” she says. “That’s where I got the courage to remind him about what I had told him. His first question, the question he used to ask me always, was: Until when do you have to take these drugs? I used to tell him: Until my death.”

Today, Patricia runs a school with 300 children, and she and Wilberforce are expecting a baby. She sought medical advice before conceiving and has undergone “prevention of mother to child transmission” treatment, so can say with certainty that the baby is HIV negative.

She is, she says, excited about her future. She says her status feels unfair, and says the local church could have been more supportive. But she says she prays that God will change people’s hearts to make them more understanding of HIV.

Above her head is an image of Jesus holding a lamb with the words “My grace is sufficient for you” and she refutes the idea that she may be angry with God.

“I can see myself 20 years from now in the future,” she says. “I have hope after taking my ARVs, I feel better. Thank God my children are negative.”

Gavin Aitchison travelled to Kenya with Christian Aid, to witness the charity's work with HIV victims and to meet those on the front-line in the fight against the virus.

• Christian Aid’s Christmas appeal this year is focused on HIV, marking the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the virus.

If you would like to donate to the appeal, or would like to find out more about Christian Aid's work on health and HIV, visit christianaid.org.uk/christmas or call 0845 7000 300.