Moonlight Stars
A project by RHU

I was born in Kampala, not far from where I live now, and I’ve lived in this same area all my life. When I was born, I lived with my parents and 6 brothers and sisters, but I lost my mom to disease when I was 7 years old. My father remarried and we all lived with my stepmom. Life in that house was ok. I have mixed emotions about growing up with my stepmom. She always made sure we had food and shelter, but she neglected our studies--she didn’t care much about education. I did go to school though, because my sister paid my school fees until the money ran out. I reached high school, but stopped in the middle.

 

Once I was out of school, things changed for me. I met a 22-year-old man and we became a couple. At 16 I became pregnant. Here in Uganda, pregnancy means you stop being the responsibility of your parents and your husband is expected to provide for you, so my father told me it is time for me to go live with the father of my child. It was ok at first; he tried hard to provide for us. When my daughter was 1 year old, though, things changed. He was out of work and he told me we were a burden to him. We started fighting all the time and it became too much, I had to get up and leave. He stopped helping out with the baby. It was all up to me.

 

I moved into my sister’s house, where she allowed me to live free of charge, but I had to pay for food for me and my child so I found work in a small restaurant. The pay was bad and the boss was awful. She used to cheat me out of my paycheck saying I was late or I broke something. My friend who was a moonlight star suggested I join her and at first I refused, but finally I was getting desperate so I agreed to try. At first it was hard. I wasn’t used to this kind of life. Everyone around was drinking heavily and smoking marijuana all the time. I’m used to it now.

 

One day a customer came who took a special interest in me. He told me he likes me a lot and we started seeing each other off the street. He said he wanted to marry me and I was happy. Though I always used condoms I agreed to not use one with him after we both got tested for HIV. With time I got pregnant and said we should get married. His response surprised and disappointed me: he revealed that he was already married. He said he would take me as a second wife and I reluctantly agreed so he would at least take care of us, but he never followed through.

 

I got to know RHU through one of their outreach programs. One of their volunteers told us we could come to the clinic and get free condoms, so I did. We spoke to the staff and they encouraged us to come to them with any problems we have. They comforted us, they counseled us, they treated us when we were sick, they became important to us. Eventually they suggested we work alongside them and they gave us training to become peer educators. They even gave us a small amount of money for outreach work we completed with them. It isn’t easy to find an NGO that works with moonlight stars but RHU doesn’t discriminate against us.

 

RHU changed our lives. They allow us to be safe because we don’t need to find money for condoms. In the past, when moonlight stars got STDs they would think that someone bewitched them and they wouldn’t speak of it. Today they get treatment.

 

My dream is that I get a good job, which is not easy for an uneducated woman. One day I would love to go back to school and complete my education. Another dream I have is to see my children happy, to see them well-educated so they don’t end up where I am now.