A Mother's "Before and After" Story of Hope

Gorreti Kibikiriwo picks vegetables from her lush kitchen garden. A widowed mother of seven living with HIV/AIDS, Kibikiriwo says her life is full of hope now thanks to a gift from Heifer.

Masaka District, Uganda – Gorreti Kibikiriwo defines her life in “before and after” moments. She is a widow and mother of seven living with HIV/AIDS in the Masaka District of Uganda.

When her late husband was alive, she and her family lacked for nothing. They met basic needs and even indulged in occasional luxuries. People in her community admired the family. But when her husband died of HIV/AIDS in 1989, her world changed. “The shock, grief, distrust, desolation I underwent can only be understood by God,” Kibikiriwo says.
 
As the family grieved the loss of their “pillar,” Kibikiriwo learned that she, too, was HIV positive. Her daughter says, “What created some confidence in us was that we all tested negative, this was a relief to our mother, but to us we were faced with ‘double loss,’ our dad who had died and now our mother had tested positive.”
 
Because of the diagnosis, Kibikiriwo was more determined than ever to provide for her family. She joined The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in Masaka and learned that it was possible to live with the disease. She received some food and counseling, but she wanted more for her children.

Learn more about Heifer's work with HIV/AIDS.

That’s when she joined a Heifer project. Kibikiriwo attended training sessions and always brought one of the children with her. “I perceived this project to belong to the entire family, in that if I happen to die, the family would not suffer,” she says.

Kibikiriwo marks December 2006 as the most transformative moment of her life. She received a calf that the family named “Fortunate” who has improved her family’s nutrition, increased income levels, deepened family cohesiveness and allowed her to diversify into other enterprises.

Kibikiriwo has already passed on the first female offspring to another family, and she has established a coffee plantation with more than 700 coffee plants. Two of her children have received degrees, and the rest are still in school. She also urges others in the community infected with HIV/AIDS to seek counseling and support.
 
Now, life after the arrival of Fortunate is full of hope. To her, what before “seemed a dream is now a reality.”

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