United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
Mark Trainer
19 May 2011
Washington — Betty Tibaleka is familiar with the struggles of the Ugandan people she counsels on The Untold Story, her television show, now in its seventh year.
Before the show, and before recognition such as the Ugandan Women of Courage award she received in April, Tibaleka was a wife and a mother to four children. When her unfaithful husband died as a result of HIV/AIDS, she gave herself over to fear. She was 29. Her youngest child was a year old.
“Although I had tested negative all the time, I lived as if I was positive, because of the issues that surround the disease, the ignorance, the disbelief. I spent, frankly, all those 12 years almost dead.”
Tibaleka eventually decided to take one more HIV/AIDS test, and this time she believed the negative result. Her decision to bring herself back to life led her to share her story with others. “In Africa, we have a culture that says that you do not talk about those innermost feelings. You do not talk about things that happen in the home.”
Tibaleka decided she would talk. “I originally went to my church and told the story, but that was not enough, because I realized it was not only the people in my church that needed it.”
Every week in her show, Tibaleka — who holds diplomas in counseling and education — supports someone who is ready to tell an untold story. People choose to tell personal stories on a television show “because they want their life back,” she said. “It’s a decision that you make to tell the story that means so much to you. And that time comes in everyone’s life when you have to let go.”
Although the show tells many stories beyond those of people living with the threat of HIV/AIDS, Tibaleka speaks passionately when asked how she advises those who have been touched by the disease.
“It is to accept the status in which they find themselves. Whether you’re positive or negative, there’s life anyway. And so you don’t have to live as if you’re dead, when you’re supposed to be making the most of the time. There are drugs. Even when you’re positive, you can lead a normal, productive life,” she said.
“There are a lot of things that happen to us that we never ever talk about. And those are the most important issues of our lives. They drain us emotionally and we have no idea that saying them out loud can help us a great deal — and not only us, but other people who hear our innermost feelings. People call it weakness, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s strength.”
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)
AllAfrica – All the Time
Continued here:
Betty Tibaleka’s Untold Story