Counselling from the heart
I am a life orientation educator, and at times I feel my work is so important as I feel so emotionally close to my learners. They trust and honour me to the extent that they express their deepest and most personal emotions to me.
One day when I was busy in class I noticed that one learner was acting dull and unhappy. That lesson I was teaching them about HIV/Aids, and afterwards she came to me. I realised immediately from the look in her eyes that she had a serious problem. She could not talk but could only cry in my office. I tried to comfort her and counsel her. Eventually she stopped crying and told me her painful story. She had been raped a week before that Monday, and when her parents took her to the doctor, he found she was HIV-positive.
It was a very hard and sorrowful day for me to counsel the child who was so deeply hurt. The best I could do was to reassure her that HIV is a sickness but that she is lovely and still so full of life.
Anonymous
Bizana, Eastern Cape