Patrick Onyango Ogota

My name is Patrick Onyango Oguta, I am the last born of children in the family of Onyango. I was born in 1972 in a small village called Korando, Kisumu District. In the family we were five children 3 are girls and 2 are boys. My father died immediately I was born. The three girls have been married, two have died and one of my brothers. So am the only one who remained in the home of Onyango.

I did my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in 1988 and passed well but I couldn’t continue with Secondary level because of lack of school fees, so I decided to join my uncle in Eldoret town in the year 1999 to train as a carpenter, the training took two years then later I joined Kibiyu saw mill in Eldoret as a carpenter and that was 2002.
In the year 2004, I married my first girl friend in Eldoret and God blessed us with a baby boy called David Ochieng. In 2006 got another boy called Kelvin Ochieng and after a short while my wife got sick and died and by then we did not know our status.

After burying my wife in our home land I came back to Eldoret and then in March the same year my wife died I decided to know my status and I was found HIV positive. At first I was worried that I was going to die and leave my children as orphans but on 23rd, January 2007, I joined a support group therapy called Victory Care and Support (He Intends Victory) and by then I had so much stigma but as i kept attending the support group i came to realize that living with HIV was not the end of life.

In the support group we began a merry go round so did elections and I was elected to be the secretary of the group. Since then I have learned a lot, the group has given me morally to talk openly and share with others how to live positively, right now I can share with others groups what HIV is, the other thing I learned is having a relationship with Jesus and I am now a born again Christian and when I speak with my friends I have no stigma. At the moment visiting others who are living with HIV/AIDS is the most important thing, I pray with them.

I can say in conclusion that this support group has made me a man and a half under the management of Irene Mwololo and our Director Martha Ambani, and all i can say is God bless Martha and Irene to keep on teaching us.