“My father put me out and now he say he will tek back me son, but he don’t want me back at the house. Right now, I stressed but what I gun do I can’t just sit down and think about it whole day. Is not the first time he put me out and he does tek me back in, but he does ill treat me and sometimes I just don’t able especially with me situation.” The 22-year-old mother of three speaking is HIV positive. She agreed to speak to me through an acquaintance of the Guyana Community of Positive Women and Girls (GCWAG). Following our conversation, I felt so helpless and as an avid believer in God I confess that at that point I sadly questioned His existence. If ever there was someone who was never given a chance to thrive, it was her. What struck me too was that she was emotionless for most of our conversation; it was like life has been so difficult throughout her years that she has become immune.
She continued, “And to be honest I not even sure why he put me out. He start with me stepmother first… I was listening to music on a cheap phone and just so he come and cuff me in my face and start embarrassing me in front of he friends.
“He throw out me clothes in the yard and right now it by a cousin and he tell me move out. Wah I coulda do? I had to move and I come by [name provided] and is hay I sleeping since. And he don’t treat anybody else like that, me stepsister dem and suh he don’t do it to them is just me. Now when [name provided] arrange fuh put me son [he is two years old] in a home and I call and tell he, he say how the boy could come back but not me. One of me stepsister dem say they guh help to send he to day care and so. And once dem want he, I would send he because I prefer he by dem and not in a home,” she said.
