This is a story about two children whose mother was HIV positive. Every day the children wake up and do work such as washing the dishes, sweeping the yard and the house. They do the washing of clothes after cleaning their mother’s face as she wakes up and take her out of her blankets and put her on a mat under a tree. Afterwards they cook porridge and give her to eat. Then they wash the dishes and go to the market to buy some maize for their mother to eat in the afternoon. The two children have no friends. It is because the other children run away from them – thinking they will contract HIV from playing with them. Most of the time they play by themselves. Sometimes they do not go to school because they need to care for their mother. When they do go to school they sit at the back of the classroom. The other children don’t get near them and this affects their learning. Also, they keep thinking of their mother – affecting their concentration.
– Lucia, age 11, Kenya