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Fadzayi Maposah, Correspondent
The one managing the service beckoned to her that it was her time to speak.
She stood up with a notebook in hand put it down, looked at the congregation and began to speak.
Her loud booming voice was bold. The audience was not new, if there were people who did not know her, they were few.
She began to speak, “My name is Rosemary Muza Tengwa. I am 52 years old. I am HIV positive. Let us close our eyes and pray.”
Whether everyone closed their eyes in prayer or others who heard the statement that revealed her HIV status for the first time wanted to confirm if it really was true just by looking at her, I cannot confirm.
After the prayer, the speaker broke into a hymn.
Initially the church members responded lowly. The news that they had just received was a lot to take in. With misted eyes, the congregation sang while focused on the speaker. The speaker’s loud booming voice rose way higher than the voices the congregation.
There is a tendency not to discuss HIV issues in the church.
The lack of information regarding those living positively with HIV has fuelled stigma and discrimination within faith circles where those who disclose their HIV status tend to be isolated.
Ms Tengwa is one person who championed the HIV cause wherever she could.
Once she had accepted that she was HIV positive, she had sought to encourage all those who were positive too but could not “soldier on.”
Of the Siziba clan, Ms Tengwa made it her business to encourage others using her life experiences.
To those who had been affected, she renewed their hope, sharing what she had gone through. She never talked about what she had heard, instead she shared her lived experiences.
One thing that Ms Tengwa always said was that experiences were never the same for everyone.
What affected some people left others unscathed. In the presentation to the congregation, she said that being brave was knowing one’s HIV status, and then listening to the advice from medical personnel.
She discouraged people from listening to people who considered having HIV as a curse.
After that service, many people hugged her tightly, maybe just expressing their support.
In her loud booming voice, she had told people not to feel sorry for her, but instead help those who needed to take the first step towards knowing their status and then adhering to taking their medication as directed by the medical personnel.
At a time when the Blue House at Marondera Provincial Hospital was a big source of stigma, Ms Tengwa would boldly walk into the facility.
The Blue House which was the opportunist infections clinic was blue a long time ago, but the name has stuck and surprisingly people who are directed to a Blue House that is not blue do not get lost.
Asked where she was coming from if she met someone on her way out, she did not randomly pick a “safe department “she would tell them she was coming from getting the HIV within her attended to.
People who had not encountered her before would let out gasps, those who did not gasp would stare in shock. She did not whisper; she spoke for all to hear.
At one function, the team serving food was taking long, Ms Tengwa went to the front, introduced herself and politely asked if they could serve her since she had a health condition.
Before the one serving her could ask what condition it was, or maybe the plan was, not even to ask for privacy’s sake, she was already telling her that she was HIV positive.
She was cheerful always. The fact that she was cheerful and physically fit made some people doubt if she really was HIV positive.
Her home was open to people who wanted to hear words of advice regarding HIV and other conditions.
When people approached her and requested how they could help their family and friends who were struggling to come to terms with being HIV positive, she would encourage them to learn to live with the disease peacefully.
Her positive outlook kept her going. She read widely about social and health issues, and was particular about what she ate.
There were no topics that she considered out of bounds. That behaviour as far as she was considered is what had sparked the spread of HIV in the past.
Someone maybe wondering why I am talking about her in the past tense.
This is because almost seven years after she introduced herself to that congregation as being HIV, Ms Tengwa died last Sunday and was buried on Thursday.
Those who came to her funeral acknowledged how much they had benefited from the cheerful countenance, the wide smile and words of wisdom and encouragement.
She had time for everyone, one never had to visit her when they did not have time, because there was always much to discuss as far as she was concerned.
She may not have had a register to compile those she interacted with but with no doubt she contributed to many facets of social and health issues.
Seeing one breastfeeding, she would give a thumbs up. Seeing those pregnant going to the clinic, they were applauded for doing the right thing.
Ms Tengwa was blessed to have a house right by a busy road, giving her a chance to befriend and disseminate information to the young and the old. Even when she later put a precast wall around the house, that did not stop her, she would walk to the gate and see the real world outside.
As delegates have just come from the World AIDS Conference, there are other people like Ms Tengwa who in their own way through their resilience have put in massive contributions to ending AIDS by 2030.
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