It is 6.30 pm in Kibera  slum, Nairobi and the streets  are busy. Most people have alighted from the train and the crowd keeps reducing as people follow the feeder routes leading to their houses.

People are selling goods along the road, especially food while children are playing. Among the crowd are pupils in torn school uniforms, books in paper bags and muddy shoes, some are bare feet. It is very easy to dismiss the crowd and go away but among them everyone has a story to tell.

Stacey Akinyi, is one of these children but she is rushing home for a different reason. She forgot to carry her medication to school and she has to rush back home despite the chilly weather and the mud on the way.

Her medicines have to be taken in time failure to which she could develop resistance to the drugs. Stacey has been on ARVs since she was one year old and she is familiar with all the terms and can even explain how the medicine works.

According to her mother she is not sure whether her daughter was born with the disease or contracted it from her. “She started getting sick frequently and one day a doctor advised me to take HIV tests together with her. The result was positive and so that’s how we have been,” she said.

When she arrives home from school, the first thing she has to do is take her medication. “These medicines prolong my life, I have to take them at prescribed times in order to stay alive,” she says while sweeping the floor of their single room house in Kibera slum. Then she has to wash her uniform and socks because it is the only one she has and wants to be clean every morning,

The standard two pupil is best described as a jovial and ambitious girl. Despite being infected with the virus that causes AIDS, She is living positively happy.

Akinyi is determined to be a doctor when she grows up and in order to achieve that she has been working hard in school and is always top three in her class. According to her, that is not enough and so she is working towards being the top in the coming exams. She is determined to be the best despite challenges of poverty and disease.

Her mother who is also HIV positive and unemployed wants the best for her daughter. She is happy and healthy and she does not seem bothered with her health status but wants to excel. From the surface it looks like everything is okay and you have to take time with her for you to know the load that this 8-year-old girl is carrying, though with a smile.

Life has not been easy for the 32-years-old mother of three children. She has to search for casual labor every morning and use the little that she gets to care for her children. On a good day she makes an average of 300 shillings. But at times she is not lucky at all .life gets even worse when she is down with opportunistic diseases/infections. During such days they have to go hungry, which is not good for their health needs.

Her husband left her when she discovered that their second born child (Stacey) was born positive. He accused her of being promiscuous and swore never to come back to that house.

“I have never seen him again since that conversation. He even refused to be tested and so I don’t even know his HIV status. My daughter was born with HIV and I have always told her the truth about our health situation (both mother and child) and she has come to accept it and is determined to excel in life,” explained her mother.

As young as she may be this girl is a source of hope to other people who are living positively. She is always smiling and looks at the bright side of life. According to Rose Mwende, her mother’s friend, she has always found strength in this girl.

“I was once down with Tuberculosis and I knew I was going to die. But when my friend visited me with her daughter I found a reason to smile. She told me not to worry because I have only had the virus for two years while she has had it for 8 years and she is still alive,” she explained adding that she was encouraged and embarrassed at the same time and swore to fight the disease.

Though her school mates do not know her status, her teachers are aware and they are taking good care of her. One of her teachers, Madam Kate, as she is commonly referred to by her pupils describes Stacey as a very hard working girl. She is always reading ahead of the teachers and is always in top three.

The teacher is however not happy with her regular absenteeism in class. “Her fee is always paid late and as the school policy she has to go home and miss classes until it is paid.

She said: “I have however realized that at times she worries about their problems at home. I have severally had to share with her my lunch when I notice that she has not gone home for lunch.”

The school she goes to is a church based private school that supports the orphans. Most of them are orphaned by HIV and some of the children are also positive.

“Life does not end at being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS I believe if I get the right opportunity and work hard just like any other person then I will become a doctor and cure many diseases. I might even discover cure for HIV/AIDS who knows?” she says while smiling broadly.

According to Akinyi, if only she can have her fees paid in time so she does not have to keep going back home while others are studying and the right food to keep her healthy then the sky is the limit.