They separate themselves from me and start talking about me

I have never experienced direct discrimination but there is indirect discrimination… I understand that people discriminate me from the way they look at me… by the way people behave with me and even with my children or wife. When my children or wife go to fetch water, people ask them the reason why I am getting thin. When my children come back they ask me about it but I do not answer them. I do not react to this because these are signs of discrimination.

What usually happens is that in parties or gatherings such as church when people want to talk about my condition they separate themselves from me and start talking about me. They ask one another if they could see that I am getting slim. They also ask my wife about my physical appearance and they also tell her that she is also getting slim or losing her body… They discriminate me indirectly, they are just avoiding being direct. Despite this indirect discrimination I get on with them.

Discrimination is done by people who are not positive or those who have not done the test yet. Positive people do not discriminate others. At home when we visit one another or at hospital when we go to fetch the medicine no one discriminates another. We advise one another on our condition and do not mind about those who discriminate us because it is a stage of life. No one knows where we came from and where we are going. We have to accept our condition and let it roll.
Marcos Amaral, male, 32 years, Mozambique

developing the topic list, oral testimony workshop, Mozambique

Every day from the 1st of July until the 21st of July we will be sharing extracts from 21 oral testimonies of 21 men and women living with HIV in Swaziland, Ethiopia and Mozambique. We’ll share these extracts here on this blog – with daily links on twitter and facebook. On the 21st of July, our partner the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) will launch a publication of these testimonies at the International AIDS conference 2014. Read more about 21 stories 21 days. Read more about the project