By Kimoni Harris, Staff Reporter
Thirty-eight-year-old Jane Brokeris ready to give up on life. She is now considering suicide after she was given a one-week ultimatum to leave her community or risk being chopped and burnt.
Broker, who has been living with AIDS for more than 10 years, told THE STAR; "I have been told to leave the community, most of the men are chasing me out saying that they are going to gas me and light me and if I don't leave they will kill me."
Now relocated
Broker, who has now relocated to another parish, said that "since a charity show was held on my behalf in 2005, many persons have been discriminating against me The show was highly publicised and at that point many persons got to know that I had the illness."
From that point Broker said she has been 'living in hell' as she was chased out of the community where she previously lived and has had to sleep on the roadside and on piazzas.
Lose his passengers
Her plight has only worsened since then. "If my few friends don't give me food, I don't eat or if I don't go by the Jamaica AIDS Support. If the men (the perpetrators) see people helping me they will beat them." Broker says she faces discrimination from all angles. "...Only last week I was boarding a taxi and when the persons saw that it was me, they came out of the taxi. At that point the driver said that he cannot afford to lose his passengers because of me, so I have to take another taxi."
At this point Broker said she began feeling suicidal because the discrimination was quite obvious.
When the STAR contacted Dr Peter Figueroa, chief epidemiologist in the National HIV/STI Control Programme, he said, "This sort of thing sounds extreme, we know a lot of persons living with HIV in communities and are not facing this sort of discrimination. In this situation we will have to try our best and follow up and make sure the situation does not continue or get worse."
Unprotected sex
Broker, who contracted the virus through unprotected sex, said all she wanted was help to turn her life around. She said that if she got a job she could move out of the community and build a room so that she could live the rest of her days in some comfort. "I am a normal person, I just need somewhere to live that's all."
Broker has three children who are now being cared for by foster parents. Broker's children are free of the virus.
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