"Adama Bangura Moves from Being
a Recipient of Care….to a Giver of Care"
A robust woman in her thirties, with a contagious smile, Adama Bangura was once so ill she believed she would not live to see her children grow up.
Originally from Sierra Leone, Adama married a Liberian man and lived in Liberia with her husband and his parents. When she became sick, people began to whisper that she must have ‘African signs sickness’. However, Adama did not believe in the legends surrounding traditional illnesses, so she decided she should take the test for HIV/AIDS. She asked her father-in-law to take her to the voluntary counseling and testing clinic.
After receiving the results, her counselor informed her that she had tested positive for HIV. The counselor asked if Adama would prefer that the counselor deliver the news to her father-in-law. Adama decided to choose the courageous path, and when the counselor called her father-in-law into the counseling room, Adama herself delivered the news. The counselor took time to explain how to care for Adama, and the father-in-law assured the counselor,“I promise you-- we will take care of her. She will be fine.”
When they returned home, he did just the opposite. He announced to all the family members, her children and the whole neighborhood that Adama had HIV/AIDS. Her family’s attitude toward her immediately changed. They would not allow her to sleep in the same room as her children, for fear that mosquitoes would bite her, then carry the HIV/AIDS virus and transmit it to her children. After continued rejection and isolation on the part of her entire Liberian family, her husband’s family finally ousted her. An aunt took to Adama to a refugee camp for victims of war and internally displaced persons and dropped her there. She had one last one request to her aunt- not to disclose her HIV status to the other refugees living in the camp. The aunt acceded to this request—and thenleft.
While living at the camp, Adama’s health steadily declined. “They told me I wouldn’t live to the end of the year. I was just waiting for the time to die. I was slim and dry and no one came near me,” she recalls.
Though no one at the camp knew her status, the Eternal Love Winning Africa Center had not forgotten her. During the year she spent in the camp, Eternal Love Winning Africa sent a peer counselor who would travel a great distance every weekend, nursing her back to health, connecting her with HIV/AIDS medication and resources, and giving her the hope to keep going. This counselor eventually connected her to the CCI peer support group at Eternal Loving Winning Africa and she was able to meet with people just like her, who had taken steps to gain strength and better their lives, despite their HIV status. She was later able to move out of the refugee camp and reestablish her life.
Adama is tearfully grateful when she recalls the role of the peer counselor who provided her support in her darkest hours. “He had the courage, the sympathy, and the pity. He was the only one in my community who did not discriminate because I was positive. I have passed the same path that others have passed. Now it’s my responsibility to help someone else.”
Due to his inspiration, Adama has now become a peer counselor herself. She has gone public with her status, she openly wears T-shirts and hats that educate others about HIV/AIDS, and she herself has become a home-based counselor taking care of others who suffer from HIV/AIDS and are not able to leave their homes. She also visits CHAL’s rural CCI sites, where the HIV-positive have not yet disclosed their status. There, she advocates, encourages and gives strength to others.
Adama’s story of courage and determination is an inspiring example for her peers, and she hopes that others who now receive-home-based care, will themselves go public and provide home-based support for others.
