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• UNAIDS
 Unite the World Against AIDS
• Reduce HIV in India
 Help Breakthrough help Indian women protect their health
STATISTICS:
•More than three–quarters (77 per cent) of all women living with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
•In the worst- affected countries of Africa, recent national surveys show as many as three young women living with HIV for every young man.
Kenya Body Maps
Barbara Kimegisha (TICAH & Point Of View)
KenyaGALLERYCONVERSATION
I am a single woman, born in western Uganda, who is living with HIV. When I was drawing my body map a lot of things came into my mind. I had a lot of anxiety about the future. While drawing, memories of joy and sadness crossed my mind. I never thought I would have a baby. Yet I am so sorrowful that I may not be there for my only child.

My face is black to show the stress and sadness and depression from when I learned of my HIV status. My hands are green with black stripes to show the shock I felt when hearing my status. I felt my hands were longer than my body. The black and yellow marking shows where I had my operation. The red circle is my womb and the blue dots show the pain in my chest.

I marked Baby Susan with stars to show the love and hope for her life. I have ongoing counseling and I have friends and a community who help and support me. All in all making a body map was among the greatest things I have done in my life.

For therapy I use antiretroviral drugs. To stay healthy I try to balance my diet by eating cereals (maize, beans, porridge mix, rice, cassava); vegetables (pig weed, cabbages, spinach, MacDonald eye, kale); fruits (oranges, bananas, carrots, watermelon); and spices (ginger, cinnamon, pepper, a little garlic). To look after my mental health I go for counseling and to support groups. And for my emotional health I go to church, pray, read the bible and talk to friends.

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About the project:

In June 2005, a group of HIV-positive women in India, Kenya, and Thailand used the technique of body mapping to share new and creative methods of staying healthy, treating illness, and keeping hope alive. Through these maps, the women display how their identities – as positive women, mothers, daughters, wives, lovers, community members, leaders, teachers, and professionals – shape their choices, and how their dreams shape their health. Our Positive Bodies (a.k.a. “Body Maps”) is a celebration of the identities of positive women and the power of art to strengthen and inspire others.
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COMMENTS ABOUT THIS STORY
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Imagining Ourselves Team (United States)
To Gender Health Resource Centre: If you would like to contact TICAH and Point of View directly. (The organisations responsible for the programme) you may reach them through their website: http://www.ticahealth.org/ or http://www.pointofview.org/. Thank you for using the site! Don't forget to join us in the upcoming months where we will discuss Young Women in Today's Economy.
Gender Health Resource Center (India)
Congratulations for sharing about the success and multiple use of the tool. May I use this in capacity development programmes?
Nutan Jain (India)
A wonderful tool for making difference. It is tool to make people feel and that is the main objective. We use it in sensitizing women and men about their body functioning and helps in demistifying myths. They value their body in a positive manner.
I am interested knowing about the project details.
Vishal Rawlley (India)
This is a really beautiful project - aesthetically and conceptually. A remarkable example of how art can express...
dseq (India)
Reading your story made me think how important life is. I am really happy that you have a support group and that you go for bible studies. My motto in life is that God has a plan for my life. He took my mum when I was 12 and then my dad a little later. I have no idea what God really wants but I trust Him. Since I got no one else in the world. The way i see people come and go, but not GOD.
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 Linda Kazibwe
Uganda		   
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