KUALA LUMPUR: Guna first told his friends that he was HIV positive when they were eating in a restaurant.

Their reaction was to tell him to get away from them.

"They told me to move to another table."

He was shocked and saddened by their behaviour.

"I wanted be honest with my friends. I wanted them to hear about my condition from me and not a different source."
The bad memory has stayed with him till today although his reaction to discrimination these days is more practical.

"It has happened so frequently that I am almost immune to it. Now I think: 'It's their choice. You can only tell people so much about HIV/AIDS but, at the end of the day, you cannot force them not to discriminate."

Guna, an ex-drug addict, was tested positive in 2000.

His employers terminated him.



That bad experience has taught him to be "particular" about how, when and who he should tell about his condition.

He is also thinking about his family, who knows about his condition and gives him support.

"If it was just me alone, it would be different. I live with my mother and wife. I don't want the neighbours to know about it and start discriminating against them because of me."



When he got diagnosed at 30, he thought it was the end of his life.

However, he reached a turning point when he joined a shelter for seriously-ill AIDS patients.

During his five years at Welcome Home, he learnt that despite being infected, he could live a normal life.

"I was taught to think positive. The centre taught me how to live again."

He started working for the home and saved money. With help from Alex Arokiam, head of the home, he completed his diploma in psychology at a private college.

He realised that healthy people living with HIV like himself could make a difference to other HIV positive people.

Today, Guna goes to schools, churches and forums to "testify" about his situation.



"I have been empowered to carry on with my life, which is as normal as it can be."