Rev. and Mrs John Azumah are HIV-AIDS patients with very unique and admirable life story.
On Joy Prime’s morning show in the show’s Survivor Story series, the couple explained that they have been living with the virus for about 20 years.
Mrs Azumah explained that after her second pregnancy, she fell terribly ill and couldn’t find the cause of the illness, despite visits to 13 hospitals.
She would later be diagnosed with HIV, a diagnosis that would forever change their lives.
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Rev. Azumah recounted that the stigma they encountered was unbearable, from his church; which he was sacked from, to the community they lived in, all of which gravely affected their children too.
He sadly recalled that his wife had tried to take her own life at a point in time.
Rev. Azumah and his wife decided to become HIV/AIDS ambassadors, taking in over 50 children with the virus, sensitising people about the virus and educating them on ways to avoid the spread and also how to live with the virus and still enjoy life like they do normally.
Speaking to hosts Jay Foley and Emefa Adeti, he also cautioned pastors and admonished them to abolish the prayer camps which hold HIV/AIDS patients because they need the drugs as well as their faith to survive.
”The pastor keeping them there, when he has malaria, he takes drugs or headache painkillers, so if it’s an AIDS patient, that person also needs the medicine too,” he said.