A majority of the women reported having experienced profoundly traumatic life events. These included rape, murder of partners and family members and various forms of political persecution.3 Twenty-seven of the women had direct experience of HIV-related death and ill health among close family and friends and 8 had experienced the death of at least one child from HIV. For many, these events had been cumulative, causing inevitable but often unrecognised effects on their health. As we shall see, three major factors were shaping these women’s lives. First, they were female and this
influenced their illness narratives in very specific ways. Second, they were migrants living far from their economic, cultural and social roots in Africa and third, they were HIV positive with all the physical and psychological implication of such a diagnosis. The interactions between these different factors were being played out in the UK where most of the women were able to access levels of health care far beyond those that would have been available at ‘home’. This study
explores the lived experiences of this unusual group of women and places them within a broader political and
economic context.