Biography of Svetlana Izambaeva

It is unacceptable to talk about this for a long time. And why talk about it for more than a minute, when we already know that this "certainly will not happen." After all, we are from decent families, we are “not prostitutes and gays” - we “do not sleep with anyone”, and we know that we need to be protected. We are exemplary husbands, wives, children of our parents. We are qualified specialists, honored workers, people with education.

We have dreams, goals and aspirations. We know what is right and what is not. Who needs to be judged and who can sympathize. And we do not put ourselves in the place of others, because we will never find ourselves on it. With Svetlana Izambaeva, the chairman of the non -profit charity fund of his name, we were introduced by a case called “progressors”. The idea of ​​a project, within the framework of which journalists throughout Russia in Non-Stop mode talk about a particular hero-a progressor, Svetlana liked it.

Moreover, she is not used to working in the “total” mode. For her, this is the norm - to conduct seminars, lectures and various consultations for people living with HIV LZHV for a day, organize all kinds of adaptive events for them, arrange holidays for HIV -infected children, respond to hundreds of letters with a request for help on the day ... For it, this is the norm - to fight for each of those who are diagnosed with HIV, have the right to decent, full -fledged, full -fledged, full -fledged, full -fledged Happy life.

For her, now the norm is to say that it is unacceptable, unpleasant, scary and ashamed. Because I have already seen some people who have long created the organization, for example, related to HIV infection, and I saw what happened to them, what they became. Someone “burned out” in work, someone no longer has that original energy, there is no liveliness in the eyes-there is no altruism!

And I think: “I?! Become like him ?? Oh! I help people already. ” Thus, I went to this very slowly. Probably, I managed to do this all the same, thanks to my spouse, who told me: “Well, look how many people are contacting you! The whole country writes to you: from Surgut, look, write, from Tomsk ... ” - that is, there were no regions where they would not write to me. I already help people ”and they began to write because I won the Miss Positive contest in the year, where I spoke all over Russia with an open person, declaring my positive HIV status.

But even then, it cannot be said that I was not at all prepared - I rather did not think that it would reach such a scale! I just understood that you need to do something about it. I understood that I was now infected, and the boy is somewhere in a parallel class-he was also infected. And I realized that if I don’t talk about it, at first another one is infected, and then more, and again ...

Because we are sitting now, and every three seconds in the world someone else is infected. The person has infected. And people, seeing this, began to contact me themselves. I constantly performed in the media - there was not a single day from the year, after I opened - that I would refuse reporters. Because I understood that I should do this - how and that there would be - to convey the right information to people.

Then I gave birth to my little girl, my daughter, and I had maternity money. And we, taking these maternity benefits, went to the registration chamber. They themselves wrote the whole charter, and they told us somewhat: “No, it is not good,” and we redid all this three or four times, and in July, we finally registered the organization. It was our little victory. That is, the daughter was born in March, and in July we had, one might say, another little “girl”.

We thought for a very long time what to call the Fund: “Mother and Child”, “Health Protection” But then my husband says to me: “Well, look, the whole country knows you already, you can’t ignore it! And I didn’t want to call the fund with my name! It was so much jerky! I say: “No, I don’t want to ...”, and then: “Well, come on ... only for a while! And I agreed only because "for a while." And this “time” has been going on for how many years - the fund is still called my name.

Of course, I sometimes think about changing the name laughs. I began this self -organization in Chuvashia - and it was very interesting, how I started it. And, having arrived there, I met pregnant HIV-positive women, with women who give birth to children, and I realized that life was ongoing. I realized that in other cities of Russia, it turns out, they conduct mutual assistance groups, and I thought: “Yes, my God!

Why are there no such groups in Cheboksary?! And then, when I returned, I just went to the head of the AIDS center with the words: “Leonid Alexandrovich, and you know that we should have such a group in Cheboksary! We cannot ... help me, ”and he gave me the room. But the way I found people is a separate story.I just “on duty” along the corridors in the AIDS center, and when I saw that the person was going on in tears, it is clear that he is in depression, or in a panic - I approached him, took it by the shoulder, and said: “Hello!

My name is Sveta. I live with HIV. " Of course, people sometimes twitched a little from this, but I said: “You know, it’s so hard for me alone ... Let's communicate? At such a time, a group takes place in such and such a place. Let's communicate! And so it all began. And when I already moved to Kazan, even before creating my organization, I already led my group purely female here. Although in Chuvashia, men who practice sex with men, and commercial sex workers, and other different people gathered for meetings.

It is amazing for me now how I collected them together. For example, people who literally recently come out of places of imprisonment and gays. After all, these are people, to put it mildly, not very good in contact with each other. But I somehow managed to combine them all. And, when I moved here, I noticed that there are groups built according to the step system. That is, people come and say: “Hello,” male bass paradizes.

But girls who infected sexually - they are not interesting to them. They live in fear, they only found out ... and I realized that we needed a female group, their own, thematic. And we, starting from the year, began to hold this group. I just “on duty” along the corridors in the AIDS center, and when I saw that the person was going in tears, I approached him, took it by the shoulder, and said: “Hello!

The first girl who began to come was she was years old. I cannot but tell this story, because it is unique. When she came to me for the first time, she just came, and cried, cried, cried ... I say: “Well, cry, and listen to others. You can not speak. " And so she simply cried for the first few groups. Then she told her story ... She was from the Tatarstan village, where she was raped and infected.

And when she went to the district point, they told her: “Ha ha ha! You yourself are to blame for this! And in the end, some time after that, the man who raped her and infected her died. And since the village is small, everyone found out about it, and she had to move out of there.

And so she arrived in Kazan. She worked, studied in the evening, worried a lot ... And then, through our dating club, she found her husband, he is also HIV-positive, and now they already have three boys. And, if earlier she constantly cried, now she always smiles, she rejoices in life, she is happy, - Svetlana recalls with a satisfied smile. And when you meet such people, you understand why your fund is needed, why this activity is needed.

Because the people who come are, to put it mildly, in depression. They come in tears, they cry, and sometimes they don’t even know what to say. And it is very important to maintain them, to establish contact, and let them know that life continues. Because when I agreed to this contact, I, like all the girls, were not afraid of HIV infection, but to get pregnant.

And I thought to myself: “Well, if I get pregnant, he will marry me ...” He laughs. But, in fact, it was my responsibility, have sex with a condom or without a condom. Yes, he offered me without him, but I had to think-because, firstly, this is still my responsibility. And secondly, this is the responsibility of our government, which should say that "in fact, not only pregnancy occurs with unprotected sexual contact, but also sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection." By the way, I never had any diseases like syphilis, gonorrhea - I was just so easy and immediately “lucky” with HIV, ”she jokes ironically.

And even more so I did not know how to lead a group of mutual assistance. It is necessary to do it, it is necessary! And I looked at him like that, and I say: "Volodya, but I do not know how to lead a group ...". To which he answers me: “Light! You will succeed!