Loretta

My name is Loretta and I am 57 years old. I am the former president of the Liberian Women Empowerment Network. I was diagnosed positive in 2002.

I don’t live with HIV. HIV lives with me. I control HIV.

To cope with HIV is to sustain yourself, do something with your hands to be able to feed yourself.  Like me, I have worked with my hands, sent my ‘croushes’ abroad and through that I have been able to build a house for myself. I have own home. Being HIV positive is not the end of the world. It is not a death sentence.

To hell with stigma and discrimination if I can sustain myself.  I was massively raped during the war; I think that is how I got infected. I have a daughter that I had before I got diagnosed. But she’s negative.

I have friend to whom I will soon be getting married. He’s negative. We manage beautifully.

We use condoms and we have beautiful sex. He loves me a whole lot.