Have you ever imagined your son or daughter testing HIV positive at a tender age while still in school. Well, meet 27-year-old Paul Banda who was diagnosed HIV positive when he was 15 years old and was in Grade 11 at the time. Some of you might have heard of Paul, now a graphic designer and musician who went public about his HIV status in 2010.
He works at MK Publishers in Lusaka’s Rhodespark area as a graphics man (head of production) but uses his free time to produce music, to sing and work as a DJ. He is also an ambassador for Brothers for Life Campaign spearheaded by the AIDS Health Care Foundation.
Paul is a happily married man and blessed with a one year and nine months old baby girl who is HIV negative.
Paul narrates that it all started in April 2003 when he developed Tuberculosis (TB) but was treated for pneumonia. Though he felt better after the treatment, the TB however relapsed and was this time around treated properly but was also advised to go for voluntary counselling and testing (VCT).
His mother encouraged him a lot and convinced him to go for VCT. The results of the test indicated that he was HIV positive with CD 4 count as low as 4 (four). “This was very disturbing for me because I felt as though my whole world had crumbled. I was so disturbed that I wondered whether I would still remain alive, whether I would go to college and whether I would ever fulfil my dreams of how I wanted my life to be.”
After three months of taking ARVs, his CD 4 count went up to 300 and most diseases that troubled him prior to testing reduced and eventually his health was good. He had initially suffered from herpes zoster on two occasions, mouth ulcers, and several other opportunistic infections which all later disappeared.
Unfortunately for Paul, barely two months after he knew his HIV status, his mother died. But Paul feels that since he was born HIV positive, the death of his mother was in a way fulfilling to her as she had ensured that Paul became aware of his HIV status before she died.
He says he was so disturbed that even his performance at school was affected and to-date, he wonders how he managed to pass with 11 points in his Grade 12 examinations in 2005. “When I was in Grade 12, an uncle of mine picked me to stay with him but just after a while of staying with him, he also passed away. Again I was devastated,” he adds.
Though he applied for admission at the University of Zambia (UNZA) to study Development Studies, Paul was not accepted and instead started working in a business centre where he taught himself graphics while at home after work he would be writing music. Before joining MK, in 2008 he joined XYZ as a full time musician and music producer.
Paul says living with HIV has brought awareness to his health. He says “I know for example that I’m not supposed to smoke and drink. I know what food to take and what supplements to take to improve my immune system.
“My story is at least assisting many other people, young and old, to accept their HIV status and live with it. Maybe I’m HIV positive for a purpose. I went public in 2010 through a documentary that was and is still being aired on MTV. In 2013, the Ministry of Education ran a campaign – Love, Life, Ziba HIV and they recognised me by presenting me with the Bravery, Courage and Commitment award.”
On stigma and discrimination, he says he has not personally experienced any of these on a serious scale but he has been contacted by several young people on how stigma and discrimination is affecting their day to day lives especially on accessing treatment and at schools.
He says the best way to fight stigma is for people living with HIV to stand up and stop being ashamed or to feel stigmatised. Young people living with HIV should not feel pity for themselves adding that people living with HIV should always remember that with or without HIV, one day they would die.
“Know that I’m not different from anyone else. So we should stand up for ourselves as we have so much to live for. Most HIV messages now are like songs because they have been repeated many times. What is important is to embrace HIV. We should not be ashamed to go to a clinic for treatment and we should be able to open up to someone about our status. Let’s own the HIV because it is here with us and every person is either infected or affected,” Paul says.
On December 1, 2016, he released his latest song titled, Stay Positive. In the song, he encourages people to stay positive in all aspects of life even in the midst of ups and downs.
Prior to the recent International AIDS Conference held in Durban, South Africa, Paul was invited to a march and concert for awareness to leaders about HIV especially on funding towards the pandemic. He says he was honoured during the concert to share the stage with celebrities such as Queen Latiffa and many others from the USA including Zambia’s own, B-Flow.
Well, that is the story of Paul who is committed to continue playing an effective role in assisting people especially young ones with encouraging information on HIV.
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