Chief Executive Officer of the Child Development Agency (CDA), Alison Anderson, shares a light moment with the youth who delivered a letter to her last week. The youth whose mother is living with HIV wrote about her personal experience and has asked the CDA to play a greater role in protecting children living with or affected by HIV. - Contributed

Over the coming weeks, children living with HIV, supported by Panos and The Gleaner Company, will be delivering letters advocating for positive change on the issues they have identified to movers and shakers in Jamaica.

Alison Anderson

Chief Executive Officer

Child Development Agency

2-4 King Street

Kingston

Dear Ms. Anderson,

I am a young lady whose mother is infected by HIV. When I was only 11 years old, my mother discovered that she was infected.

Since then, we have suffered constantly from discrimination, even from our own family and friends. I got into fights at school because of what had happened to my mother. My brother, who was 14 at the time, began smoking and stealing people's things.

Negative response

At the start of each new school year, I would do something in order to get sick because I didn't want the new children to know about my mother's illness.

One day, I decided to stand and talk about it, but each time I tried somebody always said something negative about me. Whenever I tried to interact with my classmates, they behaved as though I was not there.

I got sick of it until I started failing exams and skipping classes. I was hurt and each day that passed I thought of committing suicide. One day, my mommy and I had a fuss and she spoke loudly so that people could hear. They laughed at me and I got so upset that I walked away.

My mother then beat me with a cord and I went to the mango tree to try to hang myself. She just stood there saying, "Kill yuself man, a dat yu did fi do long time". I was so ashamed of her.

Help families cope

I am now 17 and living with a family in Kingston. I am trying hard to achieve what is good for me, but it is very hard with all the things people said about me and my mother and also what she did to me.

I would like very much if you could help families to cope with this thing. You need to find a way to help families who are unable to help their children or find it hard to tell their children that they are HIV positive. It is not easy for us children - we need help.