Nokubonga Yawa

My name is Nokubonga Yawa. I live in Khayelitsha with my mom, my two brothers and my daughter. I was born in Umtata, but moved to Cape Town when I was a baby. My mom is an unemployed single parent and couldn’t afford to send us to school, so somebody from our church looked after me and paid for my education.

In 2002 I fell pregnant with my daughter and, 5 months into my pregnancy, I took an HIV test. The results were positive. The clinic sent me to a support group of PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) where I met other women who were HIV positive. Some of the women were pregnant, like me … others had already had their babies. I’m afraid I couldn’t really concentrate on anything the councillors or other people in the group were saying because I was so ashamed – not only was I pregnant, but HIV positive! I knew that my mother, who is a Christian, would be devastated.

When I spoke to positive women who had given birth to healthy negative babies, I made the decision to deliver my child – and join the fight against the stigma surrounding HIV, using my voice to educate other teenage girls about the risks involved and the spread of the virus. As a proud South African, I felt I owed it to my country and the youth who had fought so hard to make it what it is today.

Please send my word to the young people of this world; tell them that I love and respect them. Every day I see the power and the spirit of change and it is the youth who can make the difference. In order for us to achieve all of our potential, we need to listen and learn from other people and not be ignorant about HIV. It is here and we need to deal with it. It starts with us.  It depends on us to succeed.

Black, white, pink or red … together we can make a difference. It doesn’t matter where you’re from if we share the same spirit and goal. “HOLA BAFETHU IT STARTS WITH US”