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Reporting on AIDS Hits Home: Kenyan Journalist Helps her Family Cope with HIV

(May 16, 2006) Kenyan radio journalist Tinta Ngilu thought that the HIV/AIDS stories she reported as a journalist were to educate people other than herself. But now she has a different view. In 2004, Tinta received training and support from Internews in Kenya to report on HIV/AIDS issues. Then later, the issues became much more real for her and her family.

TINTA NGILU: As a journalist, any time I did a story, I always thought I was doing it for other people. I never thought that I would directly benefit from it. When Internews approached the radio station I work for in 2004, my boss chose me to go for the training at the downtown Nairobi training center.

I went for the training unwillingly at first because I was scared of anything to do with AIDS. However, when I began the training with journalists from other radio stations and also together with the team at Internews, things got interesting.

I discovered a growing interest within myself and wanted to know more about AIDS. This was after I met and spoke to three people living with HIV at the training workshop.
During the interviews with them, I was absent minded, though in deep thought about their HIV-positive status. I could not see a sign of sickness on their faces. They spoke just like other people. There was not a single thing that showed that they were HIV-positive. This scared me even more. Their positive status with no outward sign for me meant so many others could be HIV-positive too without me knowing it. Can you imagine coming close to someone who is positive for the first time? Before I had met them, I imagined people living with AIDS had to be thin and close to death. And now here was a reality to me that AIDS is real. And besides being real, being HIV-positive does not necessarily mean death. The three positive people looked healthy, they had hope, future plans, and they lead normal lives just like me.

After learning all this and more, I worked on two AIDS programs which were aired. My family was listening to me and was happy with my radio programs.  

Six months after my programs aired, I got a call from one of my sisters, I will call her Angie. Angie left my heart bleeding to death. The news from her was heavy and shocking. She told me that our sister, I will call her Lucy, was HIV-positive. It was hard for me to believe it. How could this happen to one of us? Would I ever see my sister again, or would I just come and say goodbye to her while she was already dead? By then I was very far from Kenya – I was on a scholarship in Europe. As I held my phone speaking to my sister while crying so painfully, Angie kept on telling me that I was the only one who could help. I did not understand what she meant since I am the youngest in the family. I spoke with Angie for over two hours, we cried but this never solved anything.

The following day she called me and reminded me that I was the only one in the family who knew something about AIDS. By then I had remembered the training workshop and the radio programs I had done. I immediately emailed the Internews trainer in Nairobi. She was my only consolation. She encouraged me and promised me any assistance regarding anything I wanted to know about AIDS. This gave me a feeling that I was not alone. I realized everyone including my parents was looking to me for help. They assumed I knew everything about AIDS. To them I was their savior.

I had to gather up a lot of courage and face the reality of my sister being positive. It did not easily sink in my mind, it was hard to accept what was happening, but all my family members forced me to accept the responsibility of helping my sister. I posted to them my notes from the training and my two programs on AIDS.

After listening to the programs and reading through my notes, they asked me so many questions. Some of them I had not the slightest idea about their answers, but I made use of the media resource center at Internews to research answers to their questions. Even now, I discuss my sister’s condition with Mia, who trained me in how to report on HIV issues for radio. This encourages me so much. I always share all the information I have on AIDS with my sister Lucy and her 18 year old daughter. I also never forget to encourage the rest of my family. I just wonder what I or my family would have done if none of us knew anything about AIDS. I had spoken to the three HIV-positive people during the training workshop. Their stories are what I depend on. This gives me hope that my sister will lead a normal life.

When she learned about her status, my sister fell sick and lost 20 kilograms. Now she has gained 23 kilograms. She looks as healthy as she was before. She lost her job due to continued hopelessness, but currently she is back to herself and she is now working for a non-governmental organization.

She has accepted her status because I encouraged her. I gave her examples of the three HIV-positive people I had interviewed. I tried all the best I could to make my sister believe that her life is normal.

She does not know how to thank me. She trusts me and she counts on me. She regularly talks to me and shares with me all her joys, fears and anything about her life. This really makes me so happy. For me, she is a darling. I don’t even see her status as an issue. All I want is to be always there for her. I love her and I will always help her live her life positively.

Because of my sister, I have also learned to be a more responsible journalist. Anytime I report on a story, I’m very careful and I do it from my heart, knowing it’s not just for others, it could be for the benefit of my family or my friends or for me.

Internews’ work in Kenya is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

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