“I Thought It Was the End, But It Was Really the Beginning”: Stella’s Story of Hope and Healing
- hivtoolkit
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
When Stella Machuma first visited a clinic in Bungoma, Western Kenya, she carried not only her one-and-a-half-year-old son but also a heavy burden of fear. What began as a routine antenatal care visit during her pregnancy in 2023 would change her life forever.
“I was told I was HIV positive,” she recalls. “But I didn’t believe it. I felt healthy and strong. I thought maybe it was a mistake.” Stella refused treatment. The diagnosis didn’t feel real to her, as she had no symptoms or signs of illness. When the doctors urged her to begin medication, she simply couldn’t accept it. “I told them no,” she says. “I didn’t go back again until I gave birth.”
When her son was born, Stella was told that he also needed to be tested. Nurses explained that she shouldn’t breastfeed until they knew the baby’s status. Still, denial kept her from facing the truth. “I told them they could test the baby, but not me,” she says. “I believed I was fine.” When her son’s test came back positive, Stella’s world was changed forever. “I was devastated. I wasn’t myself anymore. I thought maybe God wanted to take us both.”
In the months that followed, Stella withdrew from care. She stayed home with her child, hiding her diagnosis from almost everyone. Her husband, unwilling to accept her status, abandoned her. “He didn’t want anything to do with HIV,” she says.
“I was left alone—it was just me and my child.”
Her baby’s health began to deteriorate. “He couldn’t sit, crawl, or even move. “You’d leave him in one place and find him there, even hours later.” By the time he turned one, her son’s illness had progressed, and he was often feverish, coughing, and too weak to stand. “I didn’t know what to do anymore. He was in pain all the time.” Stella says.
When his condition deteriorated further, Stella finally returned to the hospital. “I explained my story and apologized for rejecting care earlier,” she says. “The nurse listened and helped me.” Her son was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), began treatment, and slowly started to recover. At that point, Stella was ready to accept help to save the lives of both her and her son.
Stella’s mother, who also is living with HIV, encouraged her to seek ongoing treatment. Together, they found their way to a care center where they were welcomed without judgment. This acceptance reinforced Stella’s decision to seek care for herself and her son, and she began treatment that day. With support from the staff, Stella and her son both started receiving antiretroviral therapy (ARVs). Slowly, she began to see improvements. “Before, he couldn’t move. Now he runs to the wall. His body looks healthy. I’ve seen such a difference—the treatment has helped a lot.”
Life still hasn’t been easy. Stella faces economic hardship and uncertainty about her future. But she wants to use her experience to encourage other mothers not to waste time by delaying treatment due to stigma or shame. Stella recalls that she used to fear talking about HIV, but now sees the undeniable impact of treatment to save lives, especially in children. “My child is eating, playing, and growing strong.”
With one week left of TB medication, Stella looks ahead with cautious optimism. “I had given up on life. I even thought of abandoning my child,” she admits.
“But the treatment and kindness I found here gave me strength again. Now I pray my son will be healthy, go to school, and have a good future. I thought it was the end, but it was really the beginning.”
Too many children, like Stella’s son, are being left behind without timely access to testing, delaying diagnosis and initiation on lifesaving treatment, especially for the hardest-to-reach children and their caregivers in communities. Stella’s experience also underscores gaps in psychosocial support, critical for engaging and keeping people in HIV. With recent funding cuts impacting services and straining health systems, the risk of losing even more children is now higher than ever.
The impacts are dire. In the first quarter after the aid cuts alone, over 9,000 children were lost to care in just five countries, and this gap has continued to grow. Lack of access to timely treatment is dangerous–50% of children will die without treatment before their second birthday, and nearly 1 in 5 children with HIV under the age of one year who experienced an interruption in treatment in 2024 subsequently died.1
The Unitaid-funded THRIVE Project, led by CHAI in partnership with AFROCAB and Penta, is working to deliver life-saving care to people living with advanced HIV disease (AHD). The project is centered on local leadership and community-owned solutions to find and serve people living with AHD, like Stella and her son, where they are. In collaboration with national governments, CHAI and AFROCAB are strengthening health systems at every level. AFROCAB’s engagement at the community level is especially critical in identifying those who most need to be linked to care, so that no one, and no child, is left behind.
References:
UNAIDS DATA 2024. Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Through the generous support of Unitaid, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)-led THRIVE Project is enabling access to critical prevention, screening, and treatment commodities for advanced HIV disease to dramatically reduce mortality among adults and children living with HIV. The THRIVE project is conducted in partnership with Afrocab and Penta.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of CHAI and AFROCAB and do not necessarily reflect those of Unitaid or other partners.
