After contracting HIV from an elderly woman he had moved in with just three days after receiving his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, a young man has spoken out about being ostracized by his own family (KCSE).
When Levi Knowles was just 17 years old, he fell hopelessly in love with the woman he claimed gave him everything he needed but was never quite honest with him.
Levi, a resident of Nyeri county, told Ndungu Nyoro about the woman’s promises to take him to college, get him a nice job, and create a small slice of heaven for him on earth.
“I had no doubt that the love was real. Having come from a very humble background which I am proud of, I innocently gave this love affair my all. I got lost in this new world of love and affection. I mean…what more would I ask for?” he narrated.
Levi, who was 17 at the time, was unaware that the lady he had grown to like and adore was HIV positive until a year later, when he saw she was taking drugs that she only referred to as “body boosters.”
The young man claimed that they had a typical romantic relationship, complete with ups and downs.
“We would fight, break and makeup… Just like people in love do. Not once did I ever think or imagine that my sweet lover would be living with the HIV virus. Like how would she be positive with all the meat and beauty, how?” he posed.
As days went by, Levi’s elderly lover started falling ill and was at one point admitted to the hospital a couple of days and he would lovingly take care of her.
“I was with her through it all. I would bathe her, wash her clothes, cook for her, feed her. I was a perfect husband at 17. Then she got well and we went back home from the hospital,’ he added.
It was after the discharge that Levi decided to get himself check and to his surprise, he tested HIV positive. The results threw hi into confusion and self-rejection as he could not wrap his head around the fact that he was HIV positive at his age.
He confronted the woman he was living with and that resulted in their relationship hitting rock bottom and a dejected Levi decided to go back to his parents home.
“After a lot of fights with my lover I decided to go back home and I innocently told my dad about my status. I expected Him to be my shield like before, maybe help me overcome this or maybe understand and give me moral support which never happened,” he said.
His father instead became wild towards him and his comforter was his mother who would support him in all manner despite having being affected by Levi’s condition situation and his dad’s negativity towards him.
According to him, his father was disappointed in him and having lost three relatives to AIDS, it was a blow to him and he saw Levi as a walking corpse.
“I never got any form of encouragement from my family. I was denied food for a very long time because to them I had no use. They were waiting for the day I would drop dead. They openly discriminated me and it did hurt a lot,” he said.
When he could no longer take any more of the mistreatment, he went back to his over in the hope that they would mend things and lead a better life but that turned out to be a pipe dream
The woman would on several occasions disrespected him and bring other men to their house as he watched helplessly.
He decided to move out and went to live with a friend who later introduced him to street life and drugs.
Having lost hope in life, Levi, who was not taking HIV medicine, embarked on a revenge spree where he would sleep with countess people just to infect them with HIV so he would not die alone.
At 19 years Levi became a drug addict and a sex worker and on several occasions, he attempted to take his own life but he failed terribly every time he tried to do so
On realising God was not yet done with him and that he was not going to die anytime soon, he decided to turn his life around by starting on the HIV medication and going public with his status.
He now shares his story in an effort to creates HIV awareness in the hope that it would help one or two people out there.
“I decided to come out about my status so that I can reach out to people living with HIV who are still going through stigma. I want to talk to that person who feels that life is not worth living and that they are useless because they turned positive for HIV,” he said.
“I also want to reach out to so many adolescents and young adults who were born with HIV. I want to tell them that there is hope. That a positive HIV test result is not a death certificate,” he concluded.
Source: Tuko
