The major who never says die
By Dennis Kawuma
Dec 30, 2003
|
There are times in life when we have to face the brutal truth about our situations. Moments when the road of life seems to have come to an end.
Born on April 20, 1948 in the western Uganda district of Kabale, Major Ruranga Rubaramira is one such person whose life almost came to a halt because of a situation that seemed to define the end of the road for his life. In 1989 Ruranga met Viola Mukasa, one woman he says he will never forget because she was a true friend. �She started telling me about HIV/Aids because she knew I lived carelessly as a soldier,� he says. Ruranga and Viola decided to visit Entebbe Virus Research Institute for an HIV test. After a month, the major and his friend Viola were to collect their HIV test results. When his friend was handed her results, she was negative, but as for Major Ruranga, it was the ultimate opposite. His immediate reaction after the shattering news? The major says it was fear, fear and but nothing but fear. �I have never feared so much in my life. It was like I had been captured,� he said. After a spell of self-denial, Ruranga realised the need to find help. And yes, it was at this time that his iron-will came into play. With help from a friend, Ruranga managed to attend a conference of people living with HIV/Aids. The conference was held in Mexico, South America. All this happened shortly after the discovery of his HIV status. The conference in Mexico was in many ways the initial thrust of what turned to be the major�s positive response mechanism towards HIV/Aids. �While I had been told by some doctors that I would die within 3 years, from this conference, I discovered that I could live for even 20 years,� he says. At the time, the Major�s attitude had fully emerged from fatalism to real hope. Since then, Ruranga has not looked back. Through the National Guidance and Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV (an organisation that he helped to initiate), he has continued to champion the message of positive living with HIV/Aids. Among the lessons he has learnt due to his HIV status, Ruranga thinks that many human beings do not understand the value of their lives. He laments that Aids is having the better of us in Sub Saharan Africa because we still have a culture of failing to address priorities as they arise. He says Aids would not have been a problem in this region if our leaders had been proactive enough by dealing with ignorance, poverty and resource dislocation. Ruranga also talks freely about his family life. He is married with two wives and six children. Four of his children are above 18 years, while the other two, Happy and Isaac are four and two years respectively. He got married to his first wife in 1971 and she�s HIV negative. She�s also the mother of his first four children. In 1991, he met Jessica his second wife who is also HIV positive. Jessica has since given birth to two children, Happy and Isaac who are both HIV negative. According to the doctors, Jessica�s CD4 was below 10. The normal is supposed be 500. In simple terms, she was literally finished. So why did he get attracted to Jessica in that state? The major says with passion: � I got to love her and you know love never fails.� To some people, Ruranga ordinarily comes off as an individual with crazy ideas about HIV/Aids. He considers it very unfortunate for people not to be able to offset the onset of Aids. �You may not be able to fight HIV but you can stop it from graduating into Aids,� he says. Looking back at his life from the time he contracted the virus and now, the major says there is a sharp contrast. �I live a better life now than I lived before I was HIV positive,� he says. He adds that his life is more purposeful today. There are no accidents, it is a better-planned and more valued life. Even after making his HIV status public, Ruranga continues to deal with the challenge of avoiding ladies who keep approaching him. He says that some of them think that he is not HIV positive. �In fact before I got married to my second wife. I had a scuffle with a woman who tried to remove a condom from me when we were in the act,� he narrates. As to whether he feels anxious about not being around to see his young children grow up, Ruranga is quick to say that no body has a guarantee for life. He adds that he has been HIV positive for 20 years and he has lived to see many people die, not necessarily of Aids but of other causes. �If I die, that will be fate. I believe I will live to see my kids grow old enough to take care of themselves,� he says. Also as a result of his HIV status, Ruranga has learnt to appreciate his family more than he used to. This he says has happened naturally because he knows that in the event of his going, they would be in trouble. About Ugandans and Aids, Ruranga thinks that people in this country are still very ignorant about the potential of destruction that the disease holds. He says that much more ought to be done about the lingering ignorance that people still have about HIV/Aids. He says that there is a great need for effective awareness and public health delivery to be addressed if we are to witness a downward trend in the infection rates. As a matter of legacy, Major Ruranga would like to be remembered as one who advocated for civil society awakening. �I hope that some people will learn from my life to demand for their rights and liberties, no matter what situation they may be faced with.�
|
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now
