Born with HIV/Aids, impregnated at 13

Rukungiri

At her age, she should be in school and probably playing with her age mates. But instead, 13-year-old Flavia Natukunda (not real name) cannot do any of these. She is a mother already and has to look after her own child. Not only that, she is also HIV-positive and struggling to earn a living on her own.

Natukunda delivered her baby on December 12. Hers is a long painful story. The child is a result of a rape that took place nine months ago when she was just 12 years old.

The alleged rapist is a 15-year-old villagemate. “My grandmother sent me to collect firewood. So I went to the bush nearby. This boy found me there, made (sexual) advances at me and raped me. I believe that is when I became pregnant because I had never done such a thing before,” she tells the Saturday Monitor at Karoli Lwanga Hospital, Nyakibale in Rukungiri District, from where she had just given birth.

According to records at The Aids Support Organisation office in Rukungiri, Natukunda was born on April 21, 2000 to Mr and Mrs Ivan Gumisiriza of Kihanga Village in Buyanja Sub-county. Her parents succumbed to HIV/Aids when she was still young and she has since been living with her grandmother.

Face to face with stigma
At school she always suffered stigma. Children avoided playing with her because they knew she was on ARVs and under the care of TASO. The pupils nicknamed her ‘TASO’.
As the eldest sibling, Natukunda has been the head of the household, struggling to put food on the table with the help of her grandmother.

On her hospital bed, she recounts her ordeal with a lot of pain. “I feel happy that I have a child because while I was taking ARVs people used to tell me I will never have a child or I would die before that. But when I think of what happened to me to have the child, I do not feel happy,” she says.

Her pregnancy was never discovered until it was six months old. She had gone for Malaria medication and to pick her ARVs from Buyanja Health Centre III. “I had a lot of pain in the abdomen and I thought it was from the poor meals I was having. Things kept rolling in my stomach and whenever I told my grandmother, she would simply tell me to relax,” she says.

After her counsellor discovered that she was pregnant, Natukunda was enrolled on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/Aids treatment. “I was counselled and I felt strong,” she says.

Natukunda named her child Emmanuel Musinguzi (Musinguzi standing for success) because of the situation she has gone through. “Given a good meal, I can eat the whole dish and finish it, but they tell me to avoid eating much and I am feeling well now,” she adds.

For the rape she suffered, Natukunda wants justice but this has never been. She told her grandmother that after she was raped, she reported the matter to her grandmother, who reported the case to local authorities.

The boy was arrested but released after only two days. “I want him arrested because they have never helped me, I have gone through a lot of pain,” she explains. Although she has had a child, Natukunda believes girls who are raped should be allowed to abort because of the pain they go through. Her hopes of education have been shattered; she says she cannot continue with school now. This girl’s case was reported at Rukungiri Police Station under the police Child and Family Protection Unit in September,

The case was resolved between the family of the victim and parents of the boy at Shs150,000 as compensation and the boy was released, never to be seen again. The father of the boy is at home basking in glory as the grandfather of the new-born.

Case neglected?
The Rukungiri officer in-charge CID, Mr Michael Ogwal, told the Saturday Monitor on Wednesday that he had seen the file for the first time as it was reported when he was on a course in Egypt. He, however, acknowledges that the file was mishandled by one of the junior officers and he promised to follow up the matter. “The Ugandan law demands that two juveniles involved in a sexual act (defiling each other) have to be arrested and prosecuted together in court, but this is a different one,” Mr Ogwal says.

In hospital, the young girl is being taken care of by a relative, Olivia Kemigisha, who herself says is helpless. “I have four children; my husband abandoned me three years ago and went to Kampala. I don’t earn, I only hawk ghee but ever since she was abandoned I took responsibility of her,” Ms Kemigisha, 32, says.

Rukungiri

At her age, she should be in school and probably playing with her age mates. But instead, 13-year-old Flavia Natukunda (not real name) cannot do any of these. She is a mother already and has to look after her own child. Not only that, she is also HIV-positive and struggling to earn a living on her own.

Natukunda delivered her baby on December 12. Hers is a long painful story. The child is a result of a rape that took place nine months ago when she was just 12 years old.

The alleged rapist is a 15-year-old villagemate. “My grandmother sent me to collect firewood. So I went to the bush nearby. This boy found me there, made (sexual) advances at me and raped me. I believe that is when I became pregnant because I had never done such a thing before,” she tells the Saturday Monitor at Karoli Lwanga Hospital, Nyakibale in Rukungiri District, from where she had just given birth.

According to records at The Aids Support Organisation office in Rukungiri, Natukunda was born on April 21, 2000 to Mr and Mrs Ivan Gumisiriza of Kihanga Village in Buyanja Sub-county. Her parents succumbed to HIV/Aids when she was still young and she has since been living with her grandmother.

Face to face with stigma
At school she always suffered stigma. Children avoided playing with her because they knew she was on ARVs and under the care of TASO. The pupils nicknamed her ‘TASO’.
As the eldest sibling, Natukunda has been the head of the household, struggling to put food on the table with the help of her grandmother.

On her hospital bed, she recounts her ordeal with a lot of pain. “I feel happy that I have a child because while I was taking ARVs people used to tell me I will never have a child or I would die before that. But when I think of what happened to me to have the child, I do not feel happy,” she says.

Her pregnancy was never discovered until it was six months old. She had gone for Malaria medication and to pick her ARVs from Buyanja Health Centre III. “I had a lot of pain in the abdomen and I thought it was from the poor meals I was having. Things kept rolling in my stomach and whenever I told my grandmother, she would simply tell me to relax,” she says.

After her counsellor discovered that she was pregnant, Natukunda was enrolled on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/Aids treatment. “I was counselled and I felt strong,” she says.

Natukunda named her child Emmanuel Musinguzi (Musinguzi standing for success) because of the situation she has gone through. “Given a good meal, I can eat the whole dish and finish it, but they tell me to avoid eating much and I am feeling well now,” she adds.

For the rape she suffered, Natukunda wants justice but this has never been. She told her grandmother that after she was raped, she reported the matter to her grandmother, who reported the case to local authorities.

The boy was arrested but released after only two days. “I want him arrested because they have never helped me, I have gone through a lot of pain,” she explains. Although she has had a child, Natukunda believes girls who are raped should be allowed to abort because of the pain they go through. Her hopes of education have been shattered; she says she cannot continue with school now. This girl’s case was reported at Rukungiri Police Station under the police Child and Family Protection Unit in September,

The case was resolved between the family of the victim and parents of the boy at Shs150,000 as compensation and the boy was released, never to be seen again. The father of the boy is at home basking in glory as the grandfather of the new-born.

Case neglected?
The Rukungiri officer in-charge CID, Mr Michael Ogwal, told the Saturday Monitor on Wednesday that he had seen the file for the first time as it was reported when he was on a course in Egypt. He, however, acknowledges that the file was mishandled by one of the junior officers and he promised to follow up the matter. “The Ugandan law demands that two juveniles involved in a sexual act (defiling each other) have to be arrested and prosecuted together in court, but this is a different one,” Mr Ogwal says.

In hospital, the young girl is being taken care of by a relative, Olivia Kemigisha, who herself says is helpless. “I have four children; my husband abandoned me three years ago and went to Kampala. I don’t earn, I only hawk ghee but ever since she was abandoned I took responsibility of her,” Ms Kemigisha, 32, says.

The TASO staff, counsellors and well-wishers have been providing for the baby and her mother since she gave birth. Ms Kemigisha says the grandfather of the baby gave them Shs20,000 as they left for hospital and told them to improvise.

Extending help
Dr Baker Bakashaba, the medical coordinator of TASO Rukungiri Branch, says their staff have contributed some items including clothes, food and some little finances to help the girl and the caretaker in hospital.

Asked about the possibility of the 13-year-old getting pregnant, Dr Bakashaba said it was abnormal but could happen. “Usually the first ovulation coincides with the first menstruation, however, ovulation normally happens 14 days before menstruation, for her case this may have been a coincidence. She did not see her first periods,” he says.

A senior nurse and the in-charge of Nyakibare Hospital Maternity Ward, Agnes Tushemereirwe, says this is the second case of a 13-year-old child giving birth at the facility in the last three years. They have delivered the past cases by caesarian section. They admit at least six expectant mothers daily and more than 300 monthly. Despite her status, Natukunda has been allowed to breast feed while measures are being taken to keep the child HIV-negative.

Dr Bakashaba, who has been taking care of the child since pregnancy, says: “The first test of an infant is done at six weeks before we know the status, and later after breast feeding. This is meant to ascertain whether she contacted the virus during pregnancy, birth or during breast feeding. The Infant has been put on preventive drugs; we think there are high chances that it may be safe.”

To extend help through TASO, Good Samaritans could send Mobile Money through 0772319263