There is a different kind of pain in realizing the people who gave you life aren't necessarily the people who make you feel safe.
With pride and urgency, I carried my message of HIV prevention and stigma reduction, delivered with the fervour our community deserves.
Check out The Well Project's A Girl Like Me LIVE!, an interactive, livestreaming series created to advance health and wellness education among women living with and vulnerable to HIV.
I'm in awe of black women/ They show up every single day/ While legislators are trimmin'/ All their rights and freedoms away
Many of my thoughts land in a space of gratitude because my heart remains full that I get to meaningfully engage in work day-to-day that supports positive impact on the lives of women living with HIV.
For a long time, I thought silence was protecting me. I thought if I didn't say something out loud, maybe it wouldn't feel real.
I educate the world to keep the disease at bay/ But education is lost in the politics of today/ Yet more and more minds I continue to sway/ HIV will never define me...
Joining this blog will allow me to connect with other women living with HIV/AIDS, contribute to an important community, and continue using my voice to encourage, support, and advocate for others.
Rio reminded me that ultimately the HIV response is powered by people from the many local HIV communities who refuse to disappear.
Jyoti Dhawale stands in the long lineage of people who refuse silence. For more than 20 years, she has lived openly with HIV in a society where stigma still tries to shape destiny.