Start report: 553
(jossanda getting out of bed and preparing breakfast with the whole family, music)
I am Jossanda Tsoai. I am 39 years old and I am h.i.v. positive.
I have a husband and 5 children. My husband has Aids, my oldest daughter is h.i.v. positive and my sweet baby Tebogo died of aids when she was only 9 months. It sometimes feels that this Aids is killing my whole family.
Voice over (start talking over the general image of ivory park, not over the family)
In South Africa the estimation is that 600 people die of aids every day. Aids is a reality everywhere in the country, including township Ivory Park. The people between twenty and fourty years old are the main victims of the disease. One of them is Jossanda Tsoai.
Jossanda Tsoai
Why me? Yes the question was why me? Out of all these people. Why me? What have I done? And I took it as a punishment. Maybe I have done something wrong to God. Maybe He is punishing me. What is it? Maybe it is the ancestors. What is wrong? So it was hard, it was hard to believe.
Voice over (start talking directly after the quote of Jossanda, on the picture of Tebogo, after voice over music starts)
Eight years ago Jossandas baby Tebogo fell ill. The baby was diagnosed with aids. It was then that Jossanda heard that she herself was infected too. At first Jossanda could not believe it, but after baby Tebogo died, she knew it was true. When Jossanda saw what Aids can inflict, she decided to start helping other people.
(jossanda leaves home, she goes to regina, music softly under the images)
I feel bad. I realize that people here used to live untill 60 or even 70. But now they hardly reach 40. Take Regina. She has just turned 40. But now she is dying of aids. I am going to show her daughter how she can wash her sick mother.
Ok, Sister, now we are going to bath you. We are going to start with your face. Simangele, when you start with your face you only take the top part out, so that the rest doesnt get cold.
When I see Regina in pain I just feel like crying. We need more antiretrovirals. But the government is too slow.
Simangele Mahlangu, daughter aidspatient
Sometimes I ask myself where this disease will finish? Will not someone come and take this thing far away.
(daughter combs the hair of her mother)
What we need here is a carecenter. There are so many sick people. I hope we can build them a hospice, where they can recover or die in dignity.
(jossanda walks on to the sibuyu family, small boys playing soccer in front of their shack)
Now I am going to the Sibuyu children. They are 6 orphans in one small shack. The oldest child is 20 and the youngest is 8. Their mother died 6 months ago. It was aids again. Now every month we bring them a food parcel.
Jossanda Tsoai: How are you coping now, since your mother is gone?
Tsakani Sibuyu: 16 years old: Now we can sleep without eating anything. But at that time we were eating every day what we wanted at that time.
-Yes that is what mommies do. Mommies always try that you have something to eat everyday.
Yes
-But today you can sleep with an empty stomach.
Yes, like today since the morning we did not eat anything.
Jossanda Tsoai
To me death is like, I dont know, it comes normal to me. It is a natural thing, it is a natural thing. And some people would ask me everytime: but how are you Jossanda, it seems like you take death like, as you know. I say no I have seen so many people dying. Yes you cry, just cry for that moment and then let it go. Let it go. I have learned to let go.
Voice over (start talking when Jossanda is in the picture)
At the end of the day Jossanda visits the graveyard. Almost every day people are burried here who have died from Aids. A seperate field is made for babys who have died. This is the place where Tebogo lies.
Sometimes when I think about my lost baby, I just feel like crying and crying. But I know I cannot do that. I have to be strong. Maybe not for myself, but at least for my other children and all the others that now need me.
Music
End of report
(jossanda getting out of bed and preparing breakfast with the whole family, music)
I am Jossanda Tsoai. I am 39 years old and I am h.i.v. positive.
I have a husband and 5 children. My husband has Aids, my oldest daughter is h.i.v. positive and my sweet baby Tebogo died of aids when she was only 9 months. It sometimes feels that this Aids is killing my whole family.
Voice over (start talking over the general image of ivory park, not over the family)
In South Africa the estimation is that 600 people die of aids every day. Aids is a reality everywhere in the country, including township Ivory Park. The people between twenty and fourty years old are the main victims of the disease. One of them is Jossanda Tsoai.
Jossanda Tsoai
Why me? Yes the question was why me? Out of all these people. Why me? What have I done? And I took it as a punishment. Maybe I have done something wrong to God. Maybe He is punishing me. What is it? Maybe it is the ancestors. What is wrong? So it was hard, it was hard to believe.
Voice over (start talking directly after the quote of Jossanda, on the picture of Tebogo, after voice over music starts)
Eight years ago Jossandas baby Tebogo fell ill. The baby was diagnosed with aids. It was then that Jossanda heard that she herself was infected too. At first Jossanda could not believe it, but after baby Tebogo died, she knew it was true. When Jossanda saw what Aids can inflict, she decided to start helping other people.
(jossanda leaves home, she goes to regina, music softly under the images)
I feel bad. I realize that people here used to live untill 60 or even 70. But now they hardly reach 40. Take Regina. She has just turned 40. But now she is dying of aids. I am going to show her daughter how she can wash her sick mother.
Ok, Sister, now we are going to bath you. We are going to start with your face. Simangele, when you start with your face you only take the top part out, so that the rest doesnt get cold.
When I see Regina in pain I just feel like crying. We need more antiretrovirals. But the government is too slow.
Simangele Mahlangu, daughter aidspatient
Sometimes I ask myself where this disease will finish? Will not someone come and take this thing far away.
(daughter combs the hair of her mother)
What we need here is a carecenter. There are so many sick people. I hope we can build them a hospice, where they can recover or die in dignity.
(jossanda walks on to the sibuyu family, small boys playing soccer in front of their shack)
Now I am going to the Sibuyu children. They are 6 orphans in one small shack. The oldest child is 20 and the youngest is 8. Their mother died 6 months ago. It was aids again. Now every month we bring them a food parcel.
Jossanda Tsoai: How are you coping now, since your mother is gone?
Tsakani Sibuyu: 16 years old: Now we can sleep without eating anything. But at that time we were eating every day what we wanted at that time.
-Yes that is what mommies do. Mommies always try that you have something to eat everyday.
Yes
-But today you can sleep with an empty stomach.
Yes, like today since the morning we did not eat anything.
Jossanda Tsoai
To me death is like, I dont know, it comes normal to me. It is a natural thing, it is a natural thing. And some people would ask me everytime: but how are you Jossanda, it seems like you take death like, as you know. I say no I have seen so many people dying. Yes you cry, just cry for that moment and then let it go. Let it go. I have learned to let go.
Voice over (start talking when Jossanda is in the picture)
At the end of the day Jossanda visits the graveyard. Almost every day people are burried here who have died from Aids. A seperate field is made for babys who have died. This is the place where Tebogo lies.
Sometimes when I think about my lost baby, I just feel like crying and crying. But I know I cannot do that. I have to be strong. Maybe not for myself, but at least for my other children and all the others that now need me.
Music
End of report