EXPERIENCES
Kindly discuss your experiences of
- persons with HIV/AIDS at the workplace (no names or companies please),
- How did you become aware they are living with HIV/AIDS if any?
- Have you "suspected" colleagues of being HIV/AIDS?
- what kinds of "talk in the corridors" exist in a workplace about staff members living with HIV/AIDS
- workplace programmes we are aware of
On experiences, well we only get to know about people living with HIV/AIDS in the workplace when the person falls ill suddenly, often the individual gets admitted in the hospital and may not return to work for a long time, some return and show obvious signs of the illness and try to manage the illness and still contribute at the workplace, while some may lose their lives and never return.
This indicates that victims themselves only become aware of their HIV/AIDS status when they fall ill suddenly and are unable to recover for a long time and so have to be away from work, while the workplace may get informed by the victim's long absence as a result of the illness.
Workplace reaction is usually pity and sadness, people actually feel sad to see a colleague go down with HIV/AIDS, and it is painful to see the physical manifestation of the illness.
Workplace programme in my place of work is not effective; there is a unit in place but no impact.
I know of an officer in some government Ministry who decided to go public about her being HIV positive and advocated that her employer begins to pay for ARVs for anyone requiring treatment at a time the drugs were not stocked by government hospitals. Management in this Ministry started paying for treatment of all those who disclosed their status. These infected officers began to have talks with the rest of the Ministry personnel about the need to test and seek treatment.
In terms of "talk in the corridors" those living with HIV and AIDS are called all sorts of names, usually in local languages, which are degrading
Hi,
I had an experienced with a colleaque whom later died of the menance. She was doing fine- healthwise, suddenly she started missing work, complaining of malaria and weaknesses. She was an inteligent colleague with high efficiency. However, with the complained, she was still coming to work with little inputs. She started losing weight and losing appetitte. Little did we( colleaques) noticed , until when she was addmitted severally in the hospital that we (colleaques) started talking on the corridor. Some of us suspected and believed while some did not believe. It went on as suspected until a day she shared with us in the office that a senior colleaque advised her to go for HIV test. According to her story, that she has done the test, but could not disclose to us the result. She later became seriously ill and was not longer coming to office, (that was after one and half year). The symtoms came out on her as few did visited and called , that led to more discussion on the corridor. It continued till her death.
Personally I have not yet experienced any person with HIV or AIDS at work but to digress a little bit, I experienced one in my neighbourhood.
Dear all,
Sorry to join the training at such a late stage, I was in the field and on the road for over three weeks and had no internet connectivity. I hope it will be in order to join.
On this question, I have had experiences not necessary a work place but have worked with people who were HIV positive. The first experience I had was at a former working place (an NGO) I had been given an assignment of attending a meeting/workshop where various people and organizations would be present and I will always remember this experience as it was the first time I had been exposed to such a scenario from someone I hardly knew. Upon attending this workshop I sat down next to a gentleman and we started talking and he just out rightly told me in our local language ‘mwaiche, ifwe kaliyaka, ifwe tula toppinga’ meaning ‘young person, I am HIV positive and I take ARVs’. I was shocked because no one had ever come out so openly about their status and from that day we have been good friends. A second experience I had was when I had gone for practical training as requirement for a psyco social counselling course some two years ago. I was doing my practicals at a local peri urban clinic and one of the counsellors revealed his status during the counselling session of a client.
In my former work place, yes there were colleagues I suspected was HIV positive but never got confirmation.
In every work place there is always corridor talks about people who are living with the virus and usually it is not pleasant. However, the ever growing trends of workplace HIV & AIDS policies have reduced some of the evil vices.
Mwaba
HIV/AIDS is one key vice that is inflicting on human kind and impacting negative on almost all the developmental agenda that is realized through human intervention and effort are evolved.
Suspecting my friends at a workplace has been always the first thing that we do even though we may not confirm. Some colleague was continues in and out of hospital. Loosing weight drastically and above all, rash on his body made us all at our work place to conclude before confirming that our colleague might is have been infected.
Work place program include but not restricted to
- Wearing t-shirts every Friday depicting AIDS Message
- Carryout a sensitization program every after 3months ,with a view of encouraging our staff to go for VCT
- Encourage atmosphere that does not discriminate but rather protects every individual based on their capacity to deliver than status
- Encourage everyone to realign their thinking to the ideology that if not infected than you are affected
- Encourage those who are infected to take A RVs consistently
May God Bless Vic
Hello Friends I for one have not had a direct personal experience with persons living with HIV/AIDS revealing their status,but have been exposed to people gossiping about someone who they suspect to have the HIV/AIDS without much proof especially if one has been constantly sick,suspecting someone is obvious,i agree that i fallen prey to that. Corridor talks about people living with the HIV/AIDS are common especially if someone has not revealed his/her status,i feel its important to reveal your status and this could only be known by going for VCTs which i believe some companies have policies on HIV/AIDS.
Samuel.
Great comments and contributions from you all. Two things are evident from the comments you have all made:
- Majority of us know people/colleagues who have suffered from HIV/AIDS and its attendant challenges in the workplace currently or before.
- the disease have (in some way) affected their work/productivity
- a lot of talk about HIV/AIDS in the work place are indeed "corridor talks", gossips, or assumptions. Most of theses are indeed derogatory.
What i have noticed is the fact that most of you have even shied away from mentioning the exact words people have used.
Almost ALL of us are then affected by HIV/AIDS. Our colleagues being infected or affected by HIV/AIDS can have a great impact on their productivity, our perceptions and thinking, and eventually, our productivity too. Let us consider these impacts in the next discussions even as we continue to share our experiences under this topic.
Great comments and contributions from you all. Two things are evident from the comments you have all made:
- Majority of us know people/colleagues who have suffered from HIV/AIDS and its attendant challenges in the workplace currently or before.
- the disease have (in some way) affected their work/productivity
- a lot of talk about HIV/AIDS in the work place are indeed "corridor talks", gossips, or assumptions. Most of theses are indeed derogatory.
What i have noticed is the fact that most of you have even shied away from mentioning the exact words people have used.
Almost ALL of us are then affected by HIV/AIDS. Our colleagues being infected or affected by HIV/AIDS can have a great impact on their productivity, our perceptions and thinking, and eventually, our productivity too. Let us consider these impacts in the next discussions even as we continue to share our experiences under this topic.
Helo, I have worked with people with HIV/IDS.(former workplace) I must admit that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to identify someone who is only an HIV positive, but not necessarily having fully blown AIDS, unless they themselves tell you. It is however easier to know that someone has AIDS when they begin to exhibit signs and symptoms when their immune system begins to fail them.
1. I became aware abt one of my former colleagues HIV/AIDS status after observing sings of continuous sickness. i then ask them abt their health status and they confirmed to me that they were positive.
My answer to question #1.2 is YES!
The talk is not always good though at times sympathy is exercised.
- 2 at my work place we have an HIV/AIDS policy. The training institutions belonging to the ministry also have institutional policies.
- 1 the kind of "talk in the corridors" is that someone was promiscuous even when there is no evidence to that effect. It could have been just one incidence of unprotected sex that could have led to acquiring of HIV/AIDS.
Particpants may wish to read a Report on the Study Visit Between Botswana & Zambia On the Mainstreaming of HIV & AIDS in TEVET Institutions (2006). It can be accessed from: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/pubs/HIV_AIDS_BOTA.pdf
Kenyatta University do have a unit dealing specifically with HIV AIDS, me personally i have not gotten in touch with one in my work place who is positive. i have only been haring rumors that so and so has it.
Hello collgues, I became aware when all the symptons of HIV/AIDS became manifest. I have also had cause to suspect one or two collegues of being IV/AIDS positive when they started manifesting the symptons of the disorder. The type of talks about people living with HIV/AIDS are synical,and derogatory
Hello everyone, I became aware of one collegue when they became sick and were not getting well despite getting cough medicine. They started wasting and isolating themselves from the team. I suspected that he had HIV because of the symptoms. I was in a position to advise, so I suggested that he take a test. He was not happy with the suggestion, but later went privately. Staff were gissiping about his own stigmatisation because the company had a good HIV policy and a nomber of staff were taking advantage of it.--Smauye 13:07, 15 April 2011 (UTC)
