Mon, Mar 09, 2009 page6

• FEATURE : Nigerian state helps AIDS patients to marry

  TYING THE KNOT Bauchi State doesn’t seek to introduce HIV-infected people but when officials hear of HIV-positive lovers they step in to encourage a legal union

  • AP
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  With her golden dress shimmering in the sun, Hauwa Idris is the picture of a radiant bride. But her betrothal has not been typical: Both bride and groom are infected with the AIDS virus and have been encouraged to wed by a government program.

  Bauchi State, in Nigeria’s heavily Muslim north, has recently begun playing Cupid with its HIV sufferers, encouraging them to marry by offering counseling and cash toward their big day. The goal: to halt the spread of HIV.

  The plan had seen 93 “positive” couples marry. Idris, aged 32, and her beaming husband, 39-year-old Umar Ahmed, are No. 94.

  

  Newly married couple Hauwa Idris, right, and Umar Ahmed, both living with the AIDS virus, pose for a photograph after their wedding in Bauchi, Nigeria, on Nov. 29 last year.

  PHOTO: AP

  “I’m very happy to see my wedding day,” laughed Idris shyly. “I never expected I was going to marry because of my [HIV] status. But now I am happy and thank God that now we have a solution ... we can marry within ourselves.”

  Idris and Ahmed met in a clinic as they lined-up for anti-retroviral HIV therapy pills.

  Two months later, Ahmed asked Idris’ parents for her hand in marriage. It was granted. As an incentive the Bauchi group gave 30,000 Nigerian naira (US$200) to the couple, no small amount in a country where more than half the population live on 150 naira a day.

  The state doesn’t seek to introduce HIV-infected people, since that would entail revealing private medical data, but when officials hear of HIV lovers, they step in quickly to encourage a legal union.

  “We have such a close bond,” says 42-year-old Usman Ziko of his relationship with wife Hannah, 32.

  Money from the Bauchi plan allowed them to marry in October.

  “It was a flamboyant affair,” Hannah recalls of the wedding with a smile. “Lots of people and dancing and we snapped pictures to remember the day.”

  “When I first found out I was positive I thought it was the end of the world,” Ziko said. “I was depressed and became isolated from my friends. Now I have a partner who understands everything. We share our problems, remind each other to take medicine and are free with each other.”

  Ziko and Hannah, following strict advice and recommendations from the organization, have conceived.

  “I’m so excited to be a mother,” said Hannah, now three months pregnant. “I have been eating a special diet and having medical checkups. I never imagined I could live such a normal life.”

  Not everyone is so encouraged, however. Some health experts have criticized the plan, saying that if HIV positive couples are encouraged to have babies, more children will end up orphaned.

  While some may be adopted or find care with charitable or church organizations, many will end up on the streets begging. Bauchi’s health officials remain convinced of the plan’s benefits, however.

  Ziko certainly has no intention of leaving his unborn child to fend for itself.

  “It’s the start of a fresh, new and happy life,” he said. “I plan to live another 50 years.”
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