{"id":16403,"date":"2021-06-21T11:38:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T03:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/?p=16403"},"modified":"2021-06-21T11:40:08","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T03:40:08","slug":"love-knows-no-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/love-knows-no-boundaries\/","title":{"rendered":"LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been HIV positive for 17 years and I am now 36. I\nwas shocked when I was diagnosed with HIV and felt that my whole world had\nplunged into darkness. The only thing on my mind at that moment was death,\u201d\nsaid Kak Salwa (not her real name).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a woman living with HIV, Kak Salwa went through a\ndifficult journey of self-acceptance while facing head-on discrimination from\nher family and friends. There was a time when her family held a \u2018Doa Selamat\u2019\nfor her and her neighbours who came refused to take the drinks prepared for\nfear that they might get infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, that did not deter Kak Salwa from continuing\nwith her life. As soon as she started her treatment, she got better and was\nable to secure a stable job. It was then that she met her husband, Abang Zainal\n(not his real name).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abang  Zainal, 42, who\nis HIV negative, met Kak Salwa when they started working together in the same\nNGO. From the start, he knew about Kak Salwa\u2019s status and being well-informed\nabout HIV, he believed that he could make their marriage work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople living with HIV now have many options when it comes\nto deciding to have a family. I really hope that we can reach out to as many\npeople as possible to let them know that treatment is prevention. As such, the\nstigma and discrimination towards People living with HIV should not happen,\u201d\nsaid Abang Zainal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 2020 now and Kak Salwa and Abang Zainal have been\nmarried for 12 years. They are blessed with two boys, aged nine and seven years\nold, who are both HIV negative. The couple is now expecting their third bundle\nof joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This proves that with treatment, people living with HIV will\nnot pass the virus to their partners and it is indeed possible for them to have\na healthy family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have been HIV positive for 17 years and I am now 36. I was shocked when I was diagnosed with HIV and felt that my [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":16404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/d813c8a5-e0b1-4c2d-b39a-54dc5033b7b6-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maf.org.my\/V2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}