Note: The text below is a rewrite of a first person narrative published on ICAP.edu

As a 29-year-old taking night classes towards a degree in business management, HIV was the last thing on Kassahun Tadese’s mind. However, as waves of weight loss, fever, sweats, and general fatigue became more and more frequent, he knew something was not right. He had gone to several doctors, but despite various treatments, he felt worse. Bedridden and desperate for a solution, he decided to get an HIV test. The result? Positive.

“When I was informed of my positive HIV diagnosis, desperateness filled me and everything around me turned gloomy,” remembers Tadese. As he reeled from the unexpected diagnosis, the clinician gave him a grim prognosis: With a total CD4 count of 13—a healthy immune system normally has a CD4 count ranging from 500 to 1,500 —not only was he HIV-positive, she told him, he didn’t have much longer to live either. “I was scared, sad, and even angry at what happened to me. I stayed at home, counting down the days to my death.”

In a moonshot to save his life, a friend managed to enroll Tadese in a community program providing free antiretroviral treatment (ART) and, a few weeks later, he started seeing signs of improvement. He started putting on weight, was less tired, and, for the first time since his diagnosis, he felt hopeful for the future. Now committed to staying on treatment and living well with HIV, he startled to settle back into his old life and resumed classes.

Sensing his newfound resolve to live a full life despite his diagnosis, Sister Genet Geletu, then the ART focal person at Adama Referral Hospital in Ethiopia, invited him to participate as a peer educator in a new HIV education program sponsored by ICAP. Tadese eagerly joined the group and quickly stood out as a leader, sharing his own experiences to provide hope to people newly diagnosed with HIV. The group provided an important support system to people living with HIV, encouraging its members to share their experiences living with the virus, improving self-esteem, enhancing patients’ coping skills, and supporting medication adherence in HIV care. Soon Tadese’s responsibilities expanded. He eventually became a case manager at the hospital in 2010—the same year he completed his bachelor’s degree in business management.

As new HIV cases across Ethiopia skyrocketed, Tadese used to his expertise in clinical case management and peer support to create a new organization to expand the work of peer educators like himself in the fight against the HIV epidemic in Ethiopia. The Ethiopia Life Saving Association (ELSA) brought together 120 people living with HIV to deliver support services for people living with HIV across the HIV continuum of care, from first diagnosis to maintaining viral suppression (a very low or undetectable amount of HIV in the body). Supported by ICAP, ELSA implemented patient support groups in 12 health facilities in the central Oromia region of Ethiopia for nearly eight years. Tadese expanded the lessons learned from his project work with ELSA to support the development of peer support groups across the country as executive director of the Network of HIV Positives in Ethiopia, or NEP+. In 2017, Tadese joined the ICAP team in Ethiopia where he provides technical and site-level support to case managers working at ICAP-supported sites across the country. 

Throughout all of this, Tadese continued his studies (earning a master’s degree in business administration and a certificate in leadership), got married, and started a family; he is the proud father of two “adorable” children. How did he manage, you might ask? Tadese dismisses this question with his characteristic pluck: “I didn’t allow my status to stop me.”