A book for parents living with HIV and their children, written by members of the Treatment Advocacy & Literacy Campaign (TALC) in Zambia.

This book was inspired by the courageous and honest members of TALC. Many members are people living with HIV, people that are also mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children. Their desire to be open and honest about their HIV status inspired this book. My mum has HIV is designed to be a tool for families to encourage openness and disclosure in the home.

The story, and experiences, of the characters in this book are fictional but are based on the real life experiences of HIV positive parents.

The My mum has HIV book was developed from a group project organised by the Treatment Advocacy & Literacy Campaign (TALC), where parents and children were brought together to talk about issues of HIV disclosure.

In the experiences of all participants, both parents and children felt that disclosure of the parent’s HIV status was very important and improved relationships and treatment support within the family.

While every family is different, the participants involved in this project strongly encourage HIV positive parents to use this book as a tool to help them disclose their status to their children.

Participants felt that parents should disclose when they felt the child was mature enough to understand basic facts about HIV. They also believe that sharing information about HIV is considered an important first-step in the process of disclosure.

To learn more about TALC, HIV and treatment access in Zambia please contact the Treatment Advocacy & Literacy Campaign using the details in the back of this book.

Visit My Mum Has HIV Download Page

You can download full publication in PDF format.

This book has been produced and printed by the Treatment Advocacy & Literacy Campaign (TALC) a Zambian NGO formed to advocate for proper access to treatment, care and support for people living with HIV.

This project was funded, in part, through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Small Grants Fund. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Embassy in Zambia.

FORWARD
When people discover they are HIV positive one of the first things they have to decide is whether to tell their children, family and friends. The fear and uncertainty about how these people will react makes disclosure difficult.

Fear of stigma and discrimination also prevents many people from even finding out their HIV status, which has negative impacts for voluntary counselling and testing programs.

In 1994 at the Paris AIDS Summit, 42 national Governments - including Zambia’s - declared that the principle of Greater Involvement of People living with HIV (GIPA) was critical to ethical and effective national responses to the epidemic.

However, to date, it is mostly those very people living with HIV that have most strongly embraced this concept by coming out in the open about their positive status and giving a human face to the epidemic. It is those same parents who have been at the forefront in producing this book.

What has become clear from this process is that the children need and want to know about their parent’s HIV status. They have a right to know. But the big question is how and when disclosure should occur. This book, full of the emotion from both parents and children, is a clear illustration of the positive effects of disclosure and it provides a guide to disclosure of one’s status. This book is in a unique class of its own.

As the adage goes, ‘a problem told is a problem solved’. Disclosure shows courage, maturity, responsibility and love to those surrounding you and is appreciated by the opportunity to live longer through adherence to treatment and responsible, positive behaviour. I therefore encourage every Zambian to first know his or her status and to be brave enough to disclose it to their family members, especially to their children.

Felix Mwanza
Programmes Manager, TALC

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