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Ms. Alison Anderson
Chief Executive Officer
Child Development Agency
2-4 King Street
Kingston

Panos [12132007]

Dear Ms. Anderson,

I am a young lady whose mother is infected by HIV. When I was only 11 years old, my mother discovered that she was infected. Since then we have suffered constantly from discrimination, even from our own family and friends. I got in fights at school because of what had happened to my mother. My brother who was 14 at the time began smoking and stealing people’s things.

At the start of each new school year, I would do something in order to get sick because I didn’t want the new children to know about my mother’s illness. One day, I decided to stand and talk about it, but each time I tried somebody always said something negative about me. Whenever I tried to interact with my classmates, they behaved as though I was not there. I got sick of it until I started failing exams and skipping classes. I was hurt and each day that passed I thought of committing suicide. One day, my mommy and I had a fuss and she spoke loudly so that people could hear. They laughed at me and I got so upset that I walked away. My mother then beat me with a cord and I went to the mango tree to try to hang myself. She just stood there saying, “kill yuself man, a dat yu did fi do long time”. I was so ashamed of her.

I am now 17 and living with a family in Kingston. I am trying hard to achieve what is good for me, but it is very hard with all the things people said about me and my mother and also what she did to me. I would like very much if you could help families to cope with this thing. You need to find a way to help families who are unable to help their children or find it hard to tell their children that they are HIV positive. It is not easy for us children, we need help.

Yours sincerely,

Terry Ann Miller

Patricia Watson
Regional Director, Panos [12132007]