* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Peace and reconciliation must start in our own hearts and flows from there to the family, the neighborhood and the entire community
When I first learnt I was HIV-positive 25 years ago, I wanted to bring my dead husband out of the ground and cut him to pieces. I was so full of anger and bitterness that he had brought HIV into our lives. I thought of nothing but death and revenge. I never imagined living with HIV could bring reconciliation. In the midst of my illness and despair, I heard a God's voice telling me: ‘My daughter, with or without HIV, you must live.’
As a HIV-positive woman I have felt the resentment that comes with rejection and isolation. In my country, South Sudan, HIV-positive women are chased away from their homes and abandoned by their families, sometimes left to starve. Those who are bedridden are carried into the bush and left to die. Others are dismissed from their jobs.
I decided something or someone had to make a change, and I thought, why not me? I am a survivor, I can relate to these women. It was time we had a voice. I started the National Empowerment of Positive Women United network in 2013 and we now have 1,597 members. Most, but not all of us, have a positive status.
Conflict in South Sudan conflict has devastated the lives of millions. People with HIV, or those who have a family member coping with it, come to me broken, and I I listen.
Many of us are survivors of sexual violence and some 400 members of my network contracted HIV because they were raped. It is men that are fighting, but everybody suffers. Women and children suffer disportionately because there is so much sexual and gender-based violence. Girls as young as three years old being raped and killed.
Without peace, life is difficult. As a person living with HIV, you might have access to antiretroviral treatment, but if you don’t have food, your medicine is useless. Who can take such strong drugs on an empty stomach? I help women access simple things, like food and clean water. But I want more than this - I want to see a real reconciliation.
When Tearfund invited me to join the Inspired Individuals peace and reconciliation programme, my eyes opened wider. I used to think peace building was just connected to politics but now I realise that so much of my work is about restoring peace in the community.
If we, who are extremely marginalized because of our HIV-positive status, can find our place and voice, surely it will give hope to others that they, too, can achieve acceptance, worth, dignity and be part of transforming our country, whatever their age, gender or status.
There is so much need for healing and forgiveness. Neighbourhoods are divided along ethnic lines, but our women’s groups are coming together. It doesn’t matter who you are: we are all South Sudanese. God put us all together in this country. Peace has to start at home.
We already see peaceful co-existence, forgiveness and unity in the places where we are working. Peace and reconciliation must start in our own hearts and flows from there to the family, the neighborhood and the entire community. This must be our future.
Evelyn Letio is one of Tearfund’s Inspired Individuals programme, which develops and connects emerging leaders around the world.