AIDS awareness at Tereora

AIDS awareness has always been a weak point for the Cook Islands. Yesterday morning, Peati Maiavamailaki, AIDS ambassador for Samoa and Red Cross worker, educated a year ten class at Tereora about contracting HIV, and spoke out about how she herself has lived with AIDS for fifteen years.
It was an emotional lesson as Peati spoke about how unprotected sex with her husband led to her contracting HIV. Her husband, a Samoan rugby player, had an affair with a young HIV positive woman, and unknowingly passed the infection on to his wife. Without realizing that she was now HIV positive, Peati fell pregnant and gave birth to a child. One year later, Peati’s husband died after becoming sick with dengue fever, and the year after that, her child died.
Peati also has a seventeen year old son, who is currently studying Computer Science at USP in Fiji. “He’s all I have left,” she said with tears in her eyes. “He’s the reason I keep fighting.” Peati talked about how hard it was when she first decided to “come out of the closet,” and tell people she had AIDS. “There was a lot of stigma about AIDS. I lost so many friends and popularity, and it was simply because they didn’t know anything about the syndrome,” she said. “They thought they could catch it just by being near me.”
She went on to talk about how she had lost her job when her employers found out she was HIV positive, and how her in-laws attempted to take her first son from her, because they didn’t want him growing up with a “mother with AIDS.”
In order to try and diminish the effects of AIDS, Peati has to take 4 types of medication daily: three doses in the morning with food, and 5 doses in the evening. She stressed to the students the necessity of safe sex, and being faithful. “I didn’t realize how important it was back then. I do now,” she said.
The reactions from the students were extremely positive, with many asking Peati questions. During Peati’s speech, she went from desk to desk, hugging several students, and kissing them on their cheeks. This was to show that it’s impossible to contract HIV by simply touching another person.
When Peati was asked if the constant battle ever gets to her, and whether she ever feels like giving up, she replied, “all the time. It’s so hard doing this day after day. But when I think I like that, I simply remind myself that I have so much to live for.”

By Piakura Tiraa-Passfield

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