HIV positive Kenny Badmus says
he can still have children and
get married if he wants to Brands expert Kenny Badmus, who took to his
Facebook page on December 1st, to reveal how
he's been living successfully with HIV for the last
15 years (read story here), just revealed that he can get married and
have children if he wants to
despite being HIV positive. what he wrote below... One of the most
frequently asked questions
from hundreds of emails I received after
December 1st is : Will you be able to get
married and have a child if you are HIV
positive? [ or if you are going through some
major medical issue ]. Let me cut to the chase here and say a bold
yes. [ If I want to ]. Being Positive does not
preclude anyone from getting married or
having children – thank God for science. Research suggests that
anti-HIV therapy during
pregnancy plus planned caesarean delivery may
reduce the risk of transmission to as low as 1 in 50
women. ( AidsMap) The question is 'how many of
these women are accessing healthcare? If you want
to have a healthy child and you are HIV +, quickly get on therapy and
follow your doctor's advice. To be in love or starting to date again
should not
scare anyone. And you don't have to start looking
for HIV positive people to date. There are people
out there – though very few- who care less what
your sero status is. The best prevention you can
give your lover/spouse, if they are negative, is for you to ensure you
are on treatment. Yes. The second largest study – 052- to look at
whether
people with HIV become non-infectious if they are
on antiretroviral therapy (ART) has found no cases
where someone with a viral load under 200 copies/
ml transmitted HIV, either by anal or vaginal sex.
Although this study continues into 2017, with best practices and
eliminations of other STDs, it's
almost impossible to infect your partner with HIV
if you are adhering to your treatment. Even if you
don't use condoms. (AidsMap)
Having established the foregoings, the most
important thing for me are the psychosocial issues surrounding the
quest for marriage and having a
child. It is more of a traditional thing for most of
us in Africa to want to get married or have a child
by all means. In my opinion, I think it's a very
dogmatic way of living our lives. Why live to make
others approve of you? It's not worth it. Marriage or having children
do not guarantee our lives will
be better. As someone who had lived with these societal
expectations for many years myself, I became
healthier and emancipated the day I dropped these
societal impositions. Check this page soon to see
my journey into marriage, love, parenting and
more. I have seen people in marriages who are very happy, and I have
seen people in marriages
who are very miserable. I have seen people with
children who are very happy. Just the same way I have seen people with children
who are very lonely and miserable in their old age.
What brings happiness is living our best lives.
Marriage or being being married does not solve all
our problems if we enter into it for all the wrong
reasons. Being in love is much better. Marriage is a legalistic way of
looking at love. It allows for
claims, societal celebrations and approvals of our
mates. You don't have to be in love to get
married. The two are not mutually exclusive although they
are better when they go hand in hand. Hence, the
sham marriages around us today. But you have to
be in love to say you are in love. Love has no true
love or false love. Marriage on the other hand can
be falsified. I'd rather you pushed towards being in and finding love.
And if that love leads to
marriage, how lucky are you! Embrace it. Do it to
gain the legal benefits if you have to marry. Having a child is about
the same. If you can have
your own child biologically, embrace it, and
cherish it. Science also has made this possible. We
should look at this at other time. If you cannot, go
pour your love on other children around you.
Children are the most visible victims of undernutrition. According to
worldhunger.org, 'children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160
days of illness each year. Poor nutrition plays a
role in at least half of the 10.9 million child
deaths each year–five million deaths.' Further statistics reveals that
undernutrition
magnifies the effect of every disease, including
measles and malaria. The estimated proportions of
deaths in which undernutrition is an underlying
cause are roughly similar for diarrhea (61%),
malaria (57%), pneumonia (52%), and measles (45%) (Black 2003, Bryce
2005). You can be a
godmother. A foster parent. An adoptive father.
The list goes on.
Ever heard of John H. Johnson and his wife Eunice
Walker Johnson? The owners of one of the biggest
media platforms in the world, Ebony magazine. This couple never had
their own biological
children. They adopted Linda Johnson-Rice, who
carried on their legacies. History has thousands of
such couples. Having a womb and a dick do not
make parenting. What makes great parenting is
our heart of love.So there you have it. Remove the limitations and the
dogmas surrounding your life,
and go have some fantastic authentic life. Love.
Travel. Eat well. Go volunteering. Give. Buy
chocolates. Go partying. Dance. Laugh. Read new
books. Write. Take pictures and #LIVE
