{"id":12329,"date":"2023-05-07T10:36:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T07:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/?p=12329"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:59:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T07:59:47","slug":"to-deliver-integrated-services-to-children-and-caregivers-living-with-hiv-and-other-vulnerabilities-within-a-coordinated-referral-network-and-case-management-system-after-a-long-discussion-fa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/?p=12329","title":{"rendered":"HIV positive young mother counts blessings from ROM\u2019s PMCTC program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flora Amongin is\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>waitress<\/span>\u00a0at\u00a0<\/span>one of the 3-star<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Hotels in Uganda\u2019s Capital-Kampala. Before she enrolled at Reach Out Mbuya Community Health Initiative (ROM) for her Anti-retroviral Therapy<\/span>\u00a0(ART)<\/span>, Flora\u2019s biggest worry was\u00a0<\/span>whether\u00a0<\/span>her hands would ever carry a child of her own. With ROM\u2019s Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), Flora is a happy mother of an 18-year-old HIV free boy. This is her story\u2026.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI am Flora Amongin, 21 years old and a mother of this lovely boy. His coming has made my life complete as I have now overcome the pain of\u00a0<\/span>loosing<\/span> my mother at a very tender age-four years and growing up in the hands of my elder sisters.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before I came to ROM in 2018, I was getting treatment from one of the regional referral hospitals in eastern Uganda and that is where I was attending school from. When I completed senior four, my father decided to\u00a0<\/span>bring<\/span>\u00a0me to Kampala to study senior five as he also took care of me.\u00a0<\/span>It was\u00a0<\/span>a good experience<\/span>\u00a0living with my own father.\u00a0<\/span>It was at this time that he advised me to start receiving my ART\u00a0<\/span>at ROM as this was the nearest\u00a0<\/span>facility with good services.<\/span>\u00a0I was able to complete my Advanced levels and joined university-months after.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While at university pursuing my diploma in hotel management, I conceived in the first semester. This did not come easily on me as I got so confused that I even run away from my father\u2019s house and hid in one of the towns in eastern Uganda. My health\u00a0deteriorated\u00a0because I had stopped going to ROM for my\u00a0ART\u00a0clinic appointments; I grew thin,\u00a0darker\u00a0and never felt the same as when I would take my drugs well.\u00a0I started blaming myself for\u00a0conceiving\u00a0yet I was HIV positive, thinking it meant a death sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was\u00a0still in\u00a0hiding with my boyfriend when it was time for delivery. I had not taken proper\u00a0medication\u00a0but I informed the health workers about my HIV status.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the baby was 2 weeks old,\u00a0I boldly decided to report back to\u00a0ROM\u00a0clinic. That time, I was doing mixed feeding (breast and bottle feeding which was not\u00a0fight\u00a0given my HIV status)\u00a0The\u00a0health workers were so nice to me that they lowered my anxiety. My baby was given\u00a0<\/span>nevirapine<\/span>\u00a0syrup, and I was\u00a0advised to\u00a0opt\u00a0for bottle feeding.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am lucky to have found such a supportive husband who has walked with me every part of this long journey. In addition to providing for the us, he also cares for the child and this relieves me of a lot of pressure. “<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Flora has now been declared free from\u00a0HIV\u00a0and she promises to look after her very well by taking extra caution not to mistakably infect him. She is willing to\u00a0work day\u00a0and night to ensure that she secures his future through good health and education.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flora Amongin is\u00a0a\u00a0waitress\u00a0at\u00a0one of the 3-star\u00a0Hotels in Uganda\u2019s Capital-Kampala. Before she enrolled at Reach Out Mbuya Community Health Initiative (ROM) for her Anti-retroviral Therapy\u00a0(ART), Flora\u2019s biggest worry was\u00a0whether\u00a0her hands would ever carry a child of her own. With ROM\u2019s Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), Flora is a happy mother of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12332,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12329\/revisions\/12332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reachoutmbuya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}