 Welcome back, we are with Judy who is giving us insight, education and perspective into matters HIV which is no longer a new word to many and it's really given out there in terms of education, knowledge and mothers are not spared either because we say everything has a beginning and sometimes the beginning of an infection is through mothers to child transmission and also knowing how to take care of that kid and preventing that child from getting HIV and Judy I know back in the days it was almost guaranteed that once your HIV positive that's the end for you especially for women you cannot have children you can never ever have children you cannot have children and I know we had already started this conversation but maybe you can walk us slightly through how this is done I've been through it twice but I don't want to assume that everybody out there has gone through it in terms of the first antinatal or prenatal appointment you get is you have to get tested not just for HIV but for the wide variety of diseases so who's who's pregnant yes the immediately normally we advocate for two weeks just come yes reason being we do a lot of we do blood work we do urine we do HIV testing we look at your case again and all that the reason as to why especially for HIV and for HIV is for you come on HIV how come you are you will start you on treatment so that by the time we get them total it become it will the the HIV the viral load it can reduce yes so you infecting your child in a quarry the the risk in our coachini you see basically just lowering the risk it is lowering the risk because normally a child and as I get HIV through one the process itself if you know normal higher okay okay okay if you have like complication Danny maybe that you the umbilical cord is not cut right or something so could I extension fluid so that way you can that child can get HIV and that's why immediately that child is born before 72 72 hours okay but you are a RV you prevent as a partner with HIV virus yes yes so this child I'm a part and that's why if the mother is not keen on her medication we're not it's easy for her to transmit come total that's no job most of the time we have like us main Kenyan tonight a clinic at maybe six months or maybe at the last month so many of the last month and maybe how come it's all true I love who needs a pattern this period is a this mother I'll go to a clinic the first day she was HIV negative send off and then as as you prolong yes so we normally test at fast first trimester and last trimester so you find that these mama I look would you first trimester no HIV hop if you cut it I'm looking at that trimester she's HIV positive yes you see yes so now you're rushing mm-hmm but you are see don't talk is a little I'm not far but you are is a door as a cuisine as you want to know HIV and the advantage is so he's a no children you cannot even breastfeed you can breastfeed your child comfortable because you know couldn't do it I was a cousin so I keep going one number breastfeed but the only thing you're not supposed to do mixed feeding okay okay yeah please so you're not supposed to do mixed feeding because mm-hmm it is very soft so you're always supposed to breastfeed you breastfeed no but yet our but they may need to measure kufanya mix feeding it is recommended that you would amped to the idea okay but it's either you stop the the first yes yes so that there's no any chance yes there's no chance to get HIV I'm you can just decide don't be with parents who have just decided I will not totally breastfeed yes and it's okay yes and it's okay what's not a joy the problem is a society or norms why ain't you breastfeeding but we don't yeah what is going on absolutely and I feel like it's also a choice it's a recommendation but it's a choice just are not physically capable of breastfeeding their children because of many activities which we won't go out into but it's actually so refreshing to know that there's hope for moms who find themselves HIV positive and that they give birth to children who are not and wow I want to ask how are we doing as a country compared to say five years ago in terms of numbers and infections we're not doing badly we're not doing but we have a challenge of these young young people young generation generation age between 14 to 24 there's a very very very very big challenge there because most of them are not living their own lives so nowadays kids are very experimental they are having sex they're having a lot of sex yes so they become very experimental and you see you find that these kids are how are you what they are scared of is pregnancy yes it's not even about the HIV because they have the mindset of wow that's where the problem this is where the biggest challenge is and I don't know what we can do as a society to curb that maybe should we just accept that 14 year olds are having sex and we give them options of protected sex maybe or open conversations because I have seen again a lot of parents who say I am to talk new dog or something other than accepting like hey just in case my child is having sex if it's a girl I need to empower her to ask for to ask her to ask her partner to use a condom secondly for the boy child to actually have condoms with her with him rather and yes even for the girl to have condoms with her but then I think there's a lot of stereotypes stigma per se of why you're carrying a condom are we failing to have the conversation the right way because again like we said it is happening yes how do we give these kids options even path control whereby we're telling them yes you will be on bath control but should you have a regular boyfriend you know it just takes they say it's a Kenyan joke Kenyan men will do the first round with it and then the second round they forget about it you know but that empowerment of it's not what it feels like we're not doing enough of that we're really not doing enough totally we're not doing enough and as parents we actually failing because we're putting yourself in that cocoon or they cannot and she will not yeah and he has never even with this child like most of the time yes you're not together a corner a corner friend these these same friends do a corner and then most of most of us as parents we are too busy to want to show me show me has issue so much and I need to go to a much a society with a much a house girl woman woman with a child the peers they don't know they don't know better than what they know so that's why if we can be able to empower I think the the best person is to empower the parent so that's a corner conversation with their children see who hide at the I'm on a TV in the elephant or but if we can have the parents be involved with their children what they're doing with their hanging out yes yes it was very easy I agree it can be very easy yes because I think our parents growing up like my mom has was very very hands-on yes I want to know the parent of that yes yes yes but I think to go most of the time on phone yes okay so yeah not even that I think we've handed over the responsibility of raising our children to our house girls yes and the teachers and they would never be you in a matter they might get full attention but where a parent is not involved because we know our children something is wrong and unfortunately that's why parents also tend to miss out not just in that normal conversation conversation but children are molested every day defiled every day but they are so afraid of talking to their parents because we've not told them that mommy daddy is a friend to you we just exist we will provide we will pay for the school trip to give pocket money but that's it that's it that's actually that's the that's the biggest biggest biggest problem yes and it's it's worrying it is very worrying yeah that we and I don't know it's becoming it's becoming there's a microwave system you know it's from the microwave generation yes internet you know everything yes yeah but if I've come out it's a take time to 20 minutes every day to sit down with your child yes and ask them how are you doing yeah what has been what is wrong what is your struggle I'm up when I talk to the teachers I'm telling you mama so-and-so this is what is happening I don't understand so that child has to trust no they're not their friends and that is a big big big big problem that to be here having as a society yes yeah we have to face the truth it's family unit equals to what it translates to the society yes that's why certain societies differ you know it's the same way if you've mentioned a certain region you'd say wow that region has disciplined kids but then when you go deeper into it you'll find very well close knit families with parents who are present another region would be that one is known for crime sex drugs limit and diseases and true enough you you don't be surprised if you find the mother sells tuna brings multiple men to the house and I guess we can identify what the problem is what about the government what would the government do better in terms of delivery other than having the HIV medication that was donated again big disclaimer this is things I read on the internet and they're holding back the medication which I think is almost expiring other than their failure their failure which is so eminent what can they do better as okay I would think have open forums have open forums still empower the teachers yes because I want you all out to a knock on our total most of the day yeah yeah empower them take them to training tell them about HIV tell tell them about the importance of contraceptives tell them about so that I can talk to explain here the child this child issues so if the government can be able to empower the teachers so that if the teacher can be able to chip in does your machine work show show show have open forums yeah talk about these things because there are things that didn't happen because I said at it show never they are there and they are happening so the best thing is just talking about them and it's and letting the people understand I'm still at a media because of like they have those um yeah these campaigns that have been going on but what is the way now this is what is HIV is this is what is happening because society so what is what are we supposed to do because everything in we have a problem there's a root cause so we find a solution yes so if if they can be able to chip in more talk about it open forum advocating for for safer sex yes I think this yeah because now illegally if a child comes to you anyone who's below 18 is is called a child it's true it's trimmed off but these are the same people who are having sex we're having babies yes and these are some people with a jeweler it's true and it's happening and again it's also happening with their age mates yeah other than the you know a bunch of cases here and there most of this because I've done a bit of a study with teenage pregnancies I'm telling you the study shows the majority of the fathers to those children and their peers exactly other 15 year olds or other 17 year olds so even if we might blame them say why do they or that other person I think is that aspect of empowering both the boy and the girl yes so that we can have proper conversations and another I think relation to that is the lack of general and basic needs for the girl for instance sanitary towers what are they forced to do they're forced to seek out the older men who have done 200 before they can give them and the guy will take advantage of this poor girl and I think in as much as condom touch up and they're everywhere and they're quite I give it you just give it free yes why can't we prevent that which what this girl cannot say use a condom because the guy is like do you want this money or not I don't know you know correct exactly other than empowering her and saying I want to do it but you're gonna use a condom yes yes so I think for me personally my own perspective is that the government has failed in that aspect yes we have I think every county has a woman leader what are they doing they're not doing anything they're not doing anything exactly they're not doing anything because the world don't know if I want to advocate exactly free free sanitary towers free education empower the boys give them give everybody condoms tell them we're not encouraging but the truth is they're having sex and that's a fact it's the oldest trade they say in the world so Judy just to wrap it up what would you in general from whatever is in your heart right now what would you like to tell our audits who are majority at the youth of this country okay what I would say is um this time for everything one two we make decisions now that will affect us later so if you if you take your time and if you take where you're headed because you cannot waste the issue for now every day is that we're involving so yeah as a young person know where you're going and always be self-aware absolutely have self-awareness wow yeah have self-awareness I'm going to add and confidence to do what you need to do because you have your entire life ahead of you what is a few minutes of you know unprevented sex what are the consequences are you willing to live with those or are you willing to take a decision at that particular particular moment Judy has been amazing on our show tonight whereby we discussed the whole thing about HIV and remember it's not restricted to one person or a certain age group we're talking of the unborn child the mother young girls young boys who are born with it young boys and girls who are getting infected older people and anybody who finds unfortunately themselves in that particular path and they want to live a healthy productive life remember it's not the end of life there's hope there's medication and it's just a virus residing in your body and it can be suppressed so that you can have a full productive life I've been your host marino iti too thank you once again for joining me and thank you some water coffee for being so gracious to host us in your beautiful facilities and until next week same time same place it's been a pleasure and you have a good night