Monday, March 22, 2021

Promise Mthembu

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[[File:Promise Mthembu.jpg|alt=South African HIV/AIDS activist Promise Mthembu at an event in 2020.|thumb|300x300px|Promise Mthembu speaks at an event in 2020.]]
'''Sethembiso''' '''Promise Mthembu''' (born 1975) is a South African human rights activist and researcher, best known for her work on [[HIV/AIDS]] and [[women's rights]]. One of the first women in South Africa to publicly share that she was living with [[HIV]], Mthembu is a founder of the Gugu Dlamini Action Group, the Young Woman's Dialogue, and the Her Rights Initiative.

== Biography ==
Promise Mthembu was born in 1975 in [[Umlazi]], [[South Africa]].<ref name=":0">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> She was raised in a strictly religious [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] family.<ref name=":1">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

She became politically active as a teenager, participating in projects on AIDS awareness.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> From 1992 to 1994, she served as president of her high school's Students’ Representative Council.<ref name=":0" />

Mthembu became pregnant at age 16 and gave birth to her daughter, Mbali, who has [[cerebral palsy]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Then, in her first year as a university student in 1995, she became pregnant again, and found out that she was [[HIV-positive people|HIV-positive]]. This second pregnancy ended in a [[stillbirth]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

A few months after her diagnosis, she joined the National Association of People living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) and the National AIDS Convention of South Africa (NACOSA) in [[Durban]]. She publicly disclosed that she had HIV, becoming one of the first women in South Africa to take that step.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Mthembu dropped out of school in the late 1990s; her parents refused to pay her university fees, on the assumption that she was going to die.<ref name=":2">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> However, she eventually returned to school and went on to graduate with a bachelor's in social science from the [[University of KwaZulu-Natal]].<ref name=":0" /> She has subsequently pursued a doctorate at the university.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

After she began attending meetings of people living with HIV/AIDS and publicly discussing her positive status, her partner became abusive. Despite the abuse, Mthembu felt pressured to marry him because he had already paid the bride price to her parents. However, she eventually managed to leave him, despite significant social pressure.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

In 1997, she went to the hospital for treatment of a cervical cyst. There, she found out she was pregnant again. She asked for an [[abortion]], but the doctors there would only terminate the pregnancy if she agreed to be [[Sterilization (medicine)|sterilized]], forcing her into an unwanted sterilization.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

After the murder of [[Gugu Dlamini]], an activist who was stoned and stabbed to death after disclosing that she was HIV-positive, Mthembu founded the Gugu Dlamini Action Group, which evolved into the regional branch of the [[Treatment Action Campaign]]. She went on to work for the Treatment Action Campaign, focusing on mother-child transmission of HIV and serving on its National Executive Committee.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> In 2004, she established the Young Woman's Dialogue, a forum for HIV-positive women in [[Namibia]] and South Africa.<ref name=":3" />

After moving to the [[United Kingdom]], she continued this work at the [[International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":3" /> Later, she returned to South Africa and worked at the [[University of the Witwatersrand]]'s Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit, and co-founded the Her Rights Initiative in 2008.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

Mthembu has fought for equal treatment access for people living with HIV/AIDS, and against the kind of forced sterilization of HIV-positive women that she experienced.<ref name=":0" />

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:1975 births]]
[[Category:South African women activists]]
[[Category:HIV/AIDS activists]]
[[Category:South African women's rights activists]]
[[Category:University of KwaZulu-Natal alumni]]


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