ROM attracted men to actively participate in their partners’ or relatives’ lives as far as living with HIV is concerned. In 2022, men
were encouraged to attend both HIV counseling and testing for their pregnant wives for purposes of eMTCT and much more.
Some men accompanied their partners to get treatment for NCDs, attended in community engagements and actively participated
in discussing their roles in their homesteads, attended GBV and parenting sessions, and many joined VSLA groups through which they participated in growing household income generating activities.
“It is now eight months since I took full responsibility of my daughter. My wife gave birth to this girl at one of the hospitals in
Kampala. After delivery, she suffered from various complications which made her stay in hospital for six weeks. It was then that I
saw unfamiliar medicine in her bag. When I asked her nurse what the medicine cured, she refused to tell me but advised me to do an HIV test. I came to Reach Out Mbuya Community Health Initiative, did the test and I was found positive. I was very disappointed in my wife for failing to tell me about her HIV status, yet she had been on treatment all along. taking drugs abut the counsellors helped me accept my situation. When my wife was discharged, he never returned home because she thought I would beat her for infecting me with HIV.
Julius has ‘mothered’ his daughter from birth
It was such a difficult time for me but when I came to ROM for support, the counsellors supported me well enough for me to understand my situation, accept it and keep going. and love my daughter. Today, I am here at ROM clinic to do another test for my daughter. I love her very much and I hope by the time she is discharged, she will be fine and grow into a healthy girl. I am so thankful to all the councilors at ROM for supporting me during such a difficult time. May God bless my sister who decided to leave all she was doing and camped at my home to take care of my daughter. I now feel there is life after tomorrow.”
ROM counselors in a group photo at Mbuya site
