Loyce Maturu (Zimbabwe)
Perspectives: person living with HIV (PLHIV);
tuberculosis; youth; vertical transmission; Africa
Loyce is 25 years old and was born with HIV. Before the age of 10, she lost both her parents
and her brother. Loyce had a difficult time growing up with HIV and accepting her status: she
faced stigma and verbal abuse from some of her relatives, nearly committed suicide and
missed school often due to ill health.
She didn’t start receiving anti-retroviral
treatment (ART)
until she contracted tuberculosis (TB) when she was 12 years old; during that time Loyce had
to manage both TB and HIV treatment for the first time.
In 2004, Loyce joined
Africaid
Zvandiri Programme as a beneficiary where she had the
opportunity to meet her peers with the same status. She began to gain confidence and
realized she had a life ahead of her. In 2009, she began working with Africaid as a peer
counsellor. She is now the advocacy officer for issues around treatment, care and support
and is involved in national and global policy, strategy and programmes development with a
special focus on children, adolescents and young people living with HIV.
As a member of the Young People’s Network hosted by the National AIDS Council,
Loyce
contributed to a variety of national policies, guidelines and training curriculum. Loyce is also a
member of the Communities Delegation to the Board of the Global Fund and she was the Y+
co-Chair for the Y+ Global Network of Young People Living with HIV from 2014-2015.
Currently, of the 1.4 million people living with HIV in Zimbabwe, 880,000 of these people are
on ART through Global Fund-financed programmes; Global Fund programmes have also
treated and detected 68,700 cases of TB.
www.globalfundadvocatesnetwork.org
GFAN Speakers Bureau 2017-2018