I HAVE BEEN LIVING WITH HIV AIDS SINCE 1997 AND BY THE GRACE OF GOD I ‘AM STILL GOING STRONG! SAYS LUCY NJANGU.

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By Apostle William K Korir

  Lucy W. Njangu, spoke to Apostle William Korir on a one-on-one basis; and gave an exposition of her life experience while living with HIV Aids pandemic since the year 1997. She spoke of how she has copped with stigmatisation, her job, social life, and her children. Lucy has enormous faith in the power of God who has held her by her hand since the year 1997; and she believes God will make a way where there seems to be no way. She strongly believes that God works in ways that we cannot see. Heaven and earth will fail but God will do something for you today. God has inscribed the names of His children in the hollow of his hands. (Isaiah 41:10,13). 

She still works for her employer and she has been appointed as Peer Counsellor assistant (PCA), after completing her training as a Counsellor. Lucy can be reached on Mobile number 254 721 719 042. Lucy Wanjiru Njangu revealed her HIV Status to Apostle William K. Korir of Hope Ministries World (HMW) for three consecutive hours. She opened her heart and poured out her life and heart raking information regarding her childhood and her failed marriage. Lucy was brought up in a family who embrace deep Christian values. She said that after completing High School, she joined a Secretarial College and she be-friended a working man and had a child with him though the man vanished after learning that she was pregnant. After college she secured employment with a grain dealing corporation and to her surprise she met the father of her son. Their relationship soon warmed up and they got married. After living happily with the man for several years, the man opted to take golden handshake which was being offered by the employer to those willing to go for early retirement and he set up a tailoring shop. We had a house help who was well behaved and of good character. After sometimes I noticed that my husband was straining so much in his business and they agreed for the house help to assist him in the shop. Lucy soon received information from her close friends and neighbours that her husband was promiscuous. She did not believe the rumours doing the rounds in the estate and each time she was told, she insisted her husband was being falsely accused. She had thought that people were merely being jealous and wanted to cause division in her family. She later carried out her own investigations and found out that the information she received about her husband moving with the house help could be true. She laid a trap on him and caught them red handed in the act, in their matrimonial bed and she ended their relationship there and then. She moved out and was offered a Company’s house and she was very grateful. The husband soon ran down the business. After the incident the house help took off; and the man was so frustrated and took a barmaid and lived together in the house. After cohabiting with him for some weeks the woman convinced the man to sell the business and earn good will and when he did, she took all the money and the house furniture and all the valuables in the house and fled to unknown destination. 

The man was left bankrupt with no fare to go back to his rural home. Lucy sympathised with him and gave him fare to travel to his rural home and he did. A short while he committed suicide and left a note saying his body should not be taken to hospital but instead buried. Lucy carried out some test to determine her HIV status and the result indicated that she was HIV positive. She was devastated; and her brain stopped working. When she came to her senses she went to see her closest friend who happened to have been her best maid during her wedding. She needed someone to lean on at her moment of trial. After revealing her HIV status to her friend, she laughed and laughed and laughed so loudly that she felt terrified and angry. She regretted why she told her of her condition. When her friend noticed her serious facial expression, she took her hand and led her into her bedroom and pulled out a document and gave it to her to read. The document contained the result of HIV test which revealed that her friend had been diagnosed to be HIV positive since 2003.Her friend did not show any sign of sickness and moreover she was very healthy. Below find Lucy’s life experience living with HIV as expressly told to Apostle William, by her. CD4 cells are a type of white blood cell that fight infection and play an important role in one’s immune system. They identify attack and destroy specific bacteria, fungi and other germs affecting the body.CD4 are manufactured in the spleen, lymph nodes and thymus gland and they circulate throughout the body in the bloodstream. CD4 cells are a major target for HIV, which binds to the surface of CD4 cells, enters them, and either reproduces immediately, killing them in the process, or remains in a resting state, reproducing later. As the HIV virus gets into the cell and replicates, the number of CD4 cells in the blood gradually declines. As HIV disease progresses, the CD4 count will go down and as treatment reduces the progression, the CD4 count will go back up.

My name is Lucy Wanjiru Njangu. I was born on 7th November 1964 to a staunch Christian family. I ‘am the third born daughter of Mr. Meshack Njangu and Mrs. Peris Njangu from Embu. We are eight grown up children, six girls and two boys. I was brought up by parents where strict Christian values were inculcated into us. I went to school up to high school level, and in 1982 I was to do my forth form exams, but I did not do so for I was taken ill and was hospitalised for several months in Kieni Hospital Embu, Kenya where a doctor performed tosilectomy operation. The following year in 1983 I enrolled in form three (3) class since the Kenya Ministry of Education (KMOE) had introduced new Syllabus and in the year 1984, I sat for High school KCSE Examination. In 1985 I enrolled for a secretarial course in Muciiwaurata College in Embu and completed my course in 1986. In my second year I met a gentleman who approached me and after meeting him for some time I had a relationship with him. He was the first man in my life for I was a virgin. Even though I had initially declined to go to bed with him, I submitted to him after his persistent appeals. I Conceived after our first relationship and had a baby boy. After College I went back home and in 1987 I secured an employment with a grain Corporation as a copy typist. When I reported on duty I met the man who fathered my son and after a couple of months we were together again and months later we got married. I conceived again and got a bouncing baby girl. I lived with the man happily as we worked for the same company. In 1995 my husband opted to take golden handshake ad he started a tailoring shop business. In the house we had a good house help whom we both liked. We agreed that the house help assist my husband in the shop as I was still working with the company. After one year my husband started behaving differently, and my friends in the neighbourhood cautioned me that they suspected my husband to be having an affair with the house help. When I got the information at first I ignored it and defended him insisting that I was the one who had suggested for the house help to assist him in the shop. One of my close friends told me to open my eyes and observe the behaviour of the two. I soon noticed that there was something going on between the two. I was hurt and I confronted my husband and demanded to know what was going on between the two but he vehemently denied. So I went and told my parents insisting that I was going to leave him. My mother told me to go back to my matrimonial home insisting that I was only allowed to divorce my husband in the event of sexual immorality, I obliged. One day I faked a trip out of town and informed my husband that I would report back after three days. I bade farewell to my husband and boarded a van leading out of town. When I was out of sight, I alighted and went back into the house and hid under the bed. I wanted to confirm if my husband was faithful. Some minutes to midnight, I heard footsteps approaching, and then he opened the door and entered into the house with the house help. They kissed each other and said all sorts of nonsense and they finally entered into my bed and they started making love right above my head. I know you must be wondering what kind of a woman I ‘am, but you need to understand where I came from. I loved the man so much and I couldn’t entertain the thought that my husband was cheating on me! He looked so humble and harmless. I couldn’t imagine that he had an affair with someone else. The only way left for me was to have sufficient evidence. 

I controlled myself so much in order to have concrete and tangible evidence. This is why I managed to persevere under the bed as he man committed adultery with the house help in my matrimonial bed. Finally, I emerged from under the bed and shouted at them to tell me what they thought they were doing. The man was terrified, his eyes were almost popping out of the sockets, and with his quivering mouth he inquired with a shrill voice where I had come from. Of course the question was irrelevant in that moment of truth. He tried to apologise all along blaming the devil for misleading him and that given a chance he would never, never repeat the mistake again. The following day I took my children and our clothes and left behind with my husband all other belongings. After relating to my boss what I had gone through,he was sympathetic to me and he allocated me a vacant company house. I moved into the house with my children. The house help also left and the man remained alone. He drank heavily and later took a bar maid and cohabited with her. She later convinced him to sell the business at a good will and start a better business. 

The man obliged and sold the business with his intention to put up another business. The man had kept the proceeds from sale of the business in the house and the woman knew where the money had been kept. She later hired a truck and took all the man’s belonging and the money. When the he came back at night, he found the door wide open and the house empty. The man later suffered depression for he had no money even to pay rent. I sympathised with him so much when I received information of what had happened to him, and so I looked for him and after a small chart I offered to give him fare to travel to his rural home in Machakos and he obliged. In December that year I took my annual leave and visited my sister who lived in Mombasa and stayed with my two children after which we went back to Embu where I resumed my work. In January 1997, I received a telegram from my father in-law who requested me to rush home – Machakos without fail. I took some days off and went home and I found that he had committed suicide and he had left a note that he should not be taken to hospital for postmortem but he should be buried right away. After moaning his death for a couple of days, I went back to my place of work and a few days later I decided to carry out HIV test in order to determine if I was HIV positive or not. By then it use to take two weeks for the test results to be out. After two weeks I went back to the clinic and I was handed the results in a sealed envelope. I did not open the envelope until late that evening, after I had fed my children but I did not eat. I was anxious over what I expected even though I was 95% sure that I was HIV Negative. My late husband had broken my virginity and I knew if things were worse for my husband it could be because of his association with the barmaid whom he had cohabited with long after I had left. I opened the envelope and the results confirmed I was positive. I was so devastated that I almost fainted. When I came back to my senses it was like heaven weighed down on me. I later visited an old friend who had been our best maid during our wedding. I narrated to her my HIV status but her reaction tore me apart. She laughed at me and mocked me saying whom do you think you are going to leave your children with after you die. I regretted why I had revealed my status to her, and I felt deeply embarrassed with my mouth dry and wide open. She read my embarrassed position and quickly took my hand and led me right into her bed room where she opened one of the drawers and pulled out an envelope and handed me a result note. She informed me that she had been HIV positive since 1993 and very few people had an idea of her status. She was a nurse and she looked very healthy. I was a bit relieved to know that my friend was HIV positive and yet he had lived that long. She was my source of inspiration and whenever I felt so low, she was able to encourage me. While my condition was still Okay and my HIV status could not be noticed, I felt very discouraged whenever I heard of cases where people kept talking of people dying of HIV Aids. In November 1997, I request my employer for a transfer to the interior depots where I could not hear any more of the rumours and gossip of those dying of the disease. The management agreed to my request and transfered me to Garissa depot located further to the North Eastern. While at Garissa, I was encouraged by Senior Managers to pursue carrier course to improve my status, but I ignored as I thought it to myself that it was a matter of time before I died. Nonetheless, I was so worried for the fate of my young children. I kept praying to God to grant me His mercies, to bring up the children. I later learnt about ARV’s which was being administered to patients with certain minimum CD4 count. I went to the hospital but it had no equipment to contact the HIV tests and I was referred to a nutritionist who informed me that there was somebody senior in the same town who had tested HIV positive. The nutritionist informed me that the infected person had threatened to commit suicide. She urged me to go and encourage the infected person so as not take his life. I met the man later that week and thereafter we met quite often and he became my companion. In the year 2000, I was transferred the Company’s Head Quarters and kept my status secret. We kept contacting each other and in the year 2001, he offered to marry me. We visited my parents and he sought their permission to marry me but my parents declined the offer. Never the less we stayed together as good friends.In the year 2004, I became very sick and I thought I would die. I had rushes all over m body and I went to River pool in Harlingham, where the CD4 count was found to be 149. The Doctors Counselled me to start using ARV’s but I refused due to the negative assertion leading to side effects I had received regarding ARVs. Meanwhile, rushes in my body persisted and I visited the Kenya Network for Women living with Aids (KENWA) who carried out tests on my CD 4 count and established that I had 74 as opposed to recommended minimum of 200 CD 4 count for commencing ARVs. They urged me to take ARVs to safe my life but I refused. In the year 2005 I visited a clinic at Mathare known as blue house ran by Sansfrontiers missionaries. They carried test of my CD4 count and found out that I had only 2 CD4 count. At the Clinic I was explained in detail that the rushes I had was not HIV, but rather skin disease arising as a result of my weak body immune system. I was told that ARV’s a measure to control HIV from destroying immunity in my body and that by taking ARVs, my body will regain strength and CD4 Count will start to increase thereby boosting body immune system. I was put on ARVs and after two (2) months I went for a test for CD4 count and it had gone up to 150. I was so encouraged and I continued taking ARVs, unfortunately I contracted two diseases, TB and Meningitis. I guess I contracted the disease at the centre for there were thousands of patients suffering with AIDs pandemic. I was admitted at the Kenyatta National Hospital, however the Doctors from the Blue House followed up my case closely and encouraged me a lot. While I was at the hospital, I was seriously sick at the brink of death, but I prayed and told God that I did not come to this world to be served but to serve. Through contracting meningitis I lost my eye sight. I kept on praying, and after three days I regained my eyesight in full and the Doctors were surprised as they thought my status was irreversible. The Doctor asked me who prayed for me, inquiring whether it was me who prayed or some people prayed for me. I told the Doctor, my prayer plus those who prayed form me healed me. The doctor discharged me without prescribing any medications for me. Thereafter I visited Blue house where I continued taking ARV medication. I was tested for CD4 count and it had reached 210. In the year 2006, five months after I had been discharged from Kenyatta Hospital, I fell while cleaning the bathroom, and I became uncouncious. I was rushed to Kenyatta Hospital, where they diagnosed recurrence of meningitis. After one month I was fully healed and I was discharged. One day I decided to hold a celebration for my children after graduating from high school. I prepared for them a very special meal. And later in the evening, I decided that the occasion was appropriate for me to divulge to them my HIV status. I asked them to go into their rooms and bring the results so we would pray. I told them that I dearly love them and that I wanted them to have a future. I thanked them for not letting me down and by working hard in school until they completed high school. I assured them that I loved them and that I wanted them to be successful in life. I kept silent for a few minutes as I was in deep thought and about to disclose to them my HIV status. I then informed them that I was HIV positive! They were devastated; tears welled down their faces as they shook their heads, disbelievingly. I told them I had been having the disease since 1997, and that I had kept it secret to allow them to complete high school. I reminded them that my situation had been worse in the past, and that my condition had improved tremendously, and that I had improved to the point that I can perform all duties. I told my children that I had taken the bold step to tell them of HIV status for I wanted them to be careful when they join colleges and not to enter into careless relationship that can change their lives and leave them in regret for ever. Through the exposure which I received from the blue house, I managed to counsel my children. I was happy to have been open to them and they were very understanding. They are now closer to me and very supportive and they always make sure they are there for me. My daughter has completed her Diploma Course in Information Technology (IT), while my son is finalising his Diploma Course clinical Medicine. To date, my CD4 count has gone up from 2 to 990. I feel I ‘am fine in the Lord Lucy said with an infectious laughter with her glittering eyes. I ‘am strong, I can do anything – work, perform all my duties, go to work. I eat almost all types of food as long is it is balanced diet. I later joined Community Health Evangelism where I trained as HIV/AIDS Counsellor. I now have a testimony to give to the WORLD! I know that HIV doesn’t kill, it destroys the body’s immune system. I believe that through Jesus’ stripes all diseases are healed. For I ‘am covered by the blood of the Lamb. I have faith in God. HIV does not kill the person, it destroys the body’s defence force and when the enemy comes there is no defence and easily attacks the person. ARV’s immobilise the HIV from destroying the body’s defence mechanism, hence allowing the body’s defence force to build strong force. Dear reader if you are HIV negative, I advise you to take your life very seriously and avoid entering into careless relationships. Before you enter into any relationship with a partner know his/her HIV status. You should at all times stick to Christian values until you enter into a holy marriage. Once you get married you should further remain faithful to your one and only partner till death do yuo part. There is a reward from the heavenly father when couples live a chaste life, Jeremiah 29:11-13. If you have been tested HIV positive, remain calm and appreciate your HIV status and avoid apportioning blame. You must never infect the virus to other innocent people,to revenge. Be open and let the others know your HIV status. You must know one thing that, God loves you more than anyone else for it was for your reason that Jesus was crucified at the cross.Remain cheerful always and God will surely bless you. If you have any inquiries to make on this topic or on anything else, please do not hesitate to contact Apostle William K Korir, through E-Mail: apostle_vohm@yahoo.com; or through Mobile number; 254 722 301 429. Keep visiting our website to read our most inspiring and spirit filled WORD of God. GOD BLESS YOU!

 HOPE MINISTRIES WORLD IS TODAY'S VOICE OF HOPE TO THE WORLD. WE URGE PEOPLE TO COME TO JESUS AND RENEW THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH GOD! IT IS TIME THE WORLD TURN BACK TO GOD OUR SOURCE OF HOPE.