Many of us as
humans don’t want to face much problem in life. This is true because it is
normal to prefer enjoying life rather than to experience life’s pain. However,
no matter our wishes, things we do not expect do happen to us. Time and
unexpected events must face us. The issue now is how we are going to handle
them. Some takes the challenges they face in life to build a better version of
themselves. Some even turn those adversities into things that make them to
become well known and even took them to places and people they never dreamt of.
No matter what we might have faced in life, if we look closely there is
something in there for us to learn from. If we look close enough, there are
endless possibilities that can still go along with it. Some, from the
challenges they faced in life wrote books that became bestsellers. Some turn
their adversities into creating something for the betterment of the world
around them. They set up nonprofit organization. They set up charities to help
others not to fall victims of what they passed through.
I will share two experiences
of two people that I know found out that they were HIV positive here in Nigeria
who turned it into something positive and for the benefit of others. At a time
when the stigma was very high and most HIV positives people hide themselves
because of the social stigma; the two of them came out to say they were HIV
positives. They went on public and became active public campaigners that were
interviewed at conferences and seminars.
This people who
were nobody when they did not have the disease became known in the world only
after they see the positives in their situations rather than focusing on the
negatives. Many world renowned inventors spoke about how many times they fail
before they were able to get it right. They did not dwell on their failures but
rather they focused on what they have got to do to get what they want.
The first among
this people is Abigail Obetan who came into the limelight in 2002 after featuring
on Newsline, the popular feature package presented as part of the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA) Network News. Abigail who was then a counsellor with
the Lagos State Agency for the control of AIDS (LSACA), featured on the
programme to enlighten the Nigerian populace about living with HIV and the need
to stop the stigmatization and Discrimination of people living with HIV.
Having been on the
receiving end of the widespread epidemic of HIV related Stigma and
discrimination from family and close friends, Abigail courageous used the media
platform to convey the need to accept and relate with people living with HIV
with dignity. Her coming out exposed her to a lot of discrimination from family
and friends and even led to her daughter who is also HIV positive being rejected
from the school she was attending because she came out on the publicly about
her HIV status. Despite losing her daughter some few weeks after that incident,
she moved on believing she has a mission to act on behalf of those living with
this disease that cannot come out. She bore her pain, trauma and rejection
stoically as she struggled to survive against all odds. She believed that HIV
was not a stumbling block. She drew strength from her faith in God, believing rather
that a better definition of HIV was ‘He Intends Victory’ a term she adopted
from the name of a faith based non-governmental organization in the United
States which provides spiritual and psychosocial support to people living with
HIV.
For
her courage and determination in the face of those challenging times, Abigail
was honored with the “Heroes Award for Stigma Fighters at the 2003 edition of the
Red Ribbon Awards, an event instituted by Journalists against AIDS (JAAIDS)
Nigeria to recognize outstanding media and community contributions to the
HIV/AIDS response in Nigeria. Though she died in 2011 from drug resistant strain
of Tuberculosis, she is those that inspired the words “it is not how long we
lived but how well and how much we impart the world.”
The
other person is Pat Matemilola, a medical doctor who was the coordinator of
network of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEWPHAN) for so many years. I
met him at a workshop organized by World Bank/NACA for training community base organizations
on project management. I was humbled by his willingness to talk about his HIV
status at a time when people are very secretive about their status. He was
willing to share his experiences with others but more importantly willing to
work with organizations that will help to reduce the spread and stigmatization of
people living with HIV/AIDS.
This
two people that I mentioned turned their challenges in life into positives that
they used to help others and in a larger way the world.
Whatever
might be the challenges you might be facing instead of sitting down and crying
over the past why don’t you think of what you can do to turn your experience in
life for the betterment of humanity. You can set up a nonprofit organization,
you can write a book. You can set up a blog to share your experience with the
world. Whatever it is sit right up and think of moving the world forward just
as this quote whose origin is unknown states “Excellence is the result of
caring more than others think wise, risking more than others thinks safe,
dreaming more than others think practical, and expecting more than others think
possible”. So do you have challenges you are coping with? Will you like to
share with others how you were able to cope and survive it? Your opinion will
be highly appreciated.
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