What Is It Like to Live With HIV/AIDS in Prison in Uganda

He came to The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) in Mulago dressed in the conspicuous yellow uniform for inmates. Even for his 57 years, Geoffrey Byaruhanga looked rather frail. Not that the Prisons Service warders subjected him to hard labour at the Murchison Bay Prisons hospital, no. He is just in tougher environs where even the meals though "regular" might not be palatable and nutritious enough for a person living with HIV/AIDS.

Byaruhanga was at the TASO, for antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), which a recent study says enables persons living with HIV/AIDS lead nearly "full lives". Once every month, he leaves Murchison Bay with the Prisons bus for the TASO Kampala office.But the drugs he gets from TASO are best taken on a full stomach. "When I take maize porridge, I vomit. I prefer obushera (millet porridge) but I only get it when some nongovernmental organisation brings the inmates millet flour," says Byaruhanga as he rubs his chest and contorts his face. "As for the posho and beans, I am more comfortable with the beans," he says.

Byaruhanga has come a long way. He worked as a long distance truck driver from 1995 to 2002, hauling goods via Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This kept him on the highway, which meant less time with his family.

It was while in Mombasa that he met a "beautiful" lady in 1989, with whom he eloped. She got pregnant and when she went for prenatal check-up, she was first counselled and then advised to take an HIV/AIDS test. She turned out positive. The counsellor advised her to bring her husband for check-up. He, too, tested positive.

He turned to God. "But I prayed that He kills me at once," he says.

The congregation at Mubende Pentecost Church mollified him, telling him living with the virus is not a death sentence. Eventually, he quit truck driving and focused on constructing simple brick structures for other people.

This is where he got himself into more trouble.

"I built a car shed for some man. But when I asked for my wages, he tossed me around, saying, 'Come tomorrow'. Irked, I persisted for my dues. The next time I went to his home, police came and arrested me for defilement," claims Byaruhanga. He was locked up at Masaka Central Prison between 2004 and 2006.

Then he started falling ill. He was brought to Kampala for treatment after which prison warders took him. Inevitably, given the frequency at which he was being taken ill, Prisons transferred him to Murchison Bay in June 2007.

Byaruhanga has 16 children from different women he was involved with while he was a truck driver. One set (eight of his children) lives with his father, Edward Zebikire, in Tanzania's northern fringes whereas the other lives with their grandmother in Mubende. His mother, Aidah Ninebitabo, died in 2005.

He says he has since forgiven the man who landed him into prison. "I even wrote to him, telling him that I had forgiven him," says Byaruhanga. "Holding a grudge with him would mentally drain me. I do not need that given the state I am in."

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!