When Asunta Wagura was admitted to a nursing college in the late 1980s, she had hopes of building a bright future in the nursing sector. However, her dreams were shattered when she was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, one of the most dreaded ailments at the time.
In a 2011 interview with CNN, Wagura revealed that her college abruptly expelled her after learning about her diagnosis. Even worse, her own family rejected her, accusing her of wasting their school fees and later contracting HIV.
“I was told, ‘Asunta, I’m sorry, you have AIDS.’ And then they said, ‘Now that you’re dying, we are not going to keep you in this institution … go back and leave,'” she recalled.
To add to her despair, Wagura was rejected by her own mother.
“While I was packing my stuff at the college, she told me, ‘Well, this is it. Whether you die or live, you must make sure you compensate me for what it cost me to bring you to this college.’ And this was about 20 minutes or so after I was told about my HIV status. I was wondering, ‘Is this coming from my mother?'” she said.
