'Me Lipuo Booi

“Some people hide their HIV. They say ‘I am going to die,’ but they won’t get tested. They don’t know that they could be alive again like me.”

’Me Lipuo Booi is 28 years old and she has AIDS. She has been a member of Phelisanang Bophelong, a grass roots support group connected to Tšepong Clinic, since January 2005. Founded in 2004, Phelisanang Bophelong fights the stigma about HIV/AIDS in Lesotho and offers a safe, accepting place for people living with HIV/AIDS to gather while working to mitigate the impact that HIV/AIDS is having on their lives, their communities and their country.

‘Me Lipuo Booi joined the group “to show people this HIV/AIDS is not a sickness which causes people to die. It is in my blood but I am still strong.” After four months of antiretroviral drug therapy at Tšepong Clinic and group meetings, ‘Me Booi’s CD4 count went from 88 to 254 and her weight soared from 37 kg to 55 kg.

“I’m so happy that I’m alive,” says ‘Me Booi radiantly.