Thelma Tshuma, a 29 year-old girl child and HIV&AIDS advocate died in the early of Tuesday, 6 August. She has been described by Edmund Garwe Trust as a bundle of joy and her passing has been described as devastating for all who knew her.
Thelma was the program manager at the Edmund Garwe Trust (EGT). Born in 1994 she was 29 years old and just shy of her 30th birthday at the time of her death.
Another author who is also a trustee for the Edmund Garwe Trust, Wadzanai Garwe wrote an eulogy and had this to say
: A light went out in my world today. Thelma Atiboke Tshuma was effervescent.
She exuded life and the love of just being. Thelma had fibromyalgia, was HIV positive and had a mental illness being bipolar. These were all side effects or opportunistic infections of HIV. She experienced pain every single day of her life.
It did not stop her.
I never met her in person. I met her virtually when I was collecting and collating the stories for ‘Beyond and Behind the Stories of HIV and AIDS’. Her contribution ‘Through it all I’m Still Standing’ was a testament to her blind faith.
I cannot understand a deity that allows a child to be born with so many struggles. She discovered she was HIV positive at 15. It impacted her education. She did not let that stop her.
She called me Mama Wadzi or Boss Lady because she worked for the Edmund Garwe Trust as the Program Manager. She had never done something so challenging and she rose to the challenge like the trooper she was. I just inboxed her one day and said I would like you to be the face of EGT. She asked me how that worked and I told her we would figure it out together.
She arranged the book launch at Kapoto Restaurant and could not believe she pulled it off. She kept saying to me it was the most amazing thing she ever did.
My sister Nyemudzai Tatenda Garwe sent me this message ‘She chattered on and on about Mama Wadzi. You impacted her in the short time you knew her.’
She received my hug via Nyemu. We were joined in spirit. In May she suffered a relapse of her bi-polar and started hallucinating, suffering from paranoia and the grandiose manifestations. She was home with her family recovering and trying to recalibrate.
I am just saying why? Why was this earth angel taken? The fighter just lost the will to keep fighting because it became too much. The odds were stacked against her.
Her other mama Isabel Rutendo Dzvova and fellow author wrote ‘Gone too soon. I can’t help but feel kuti as a society we failed her.’
We did fail her! Primary health care is a human right. The health system failed Thelma.
When we speak of the hidden cost of HIV – this is it.
A light went out in my world today. Heaven gained an Angel.
She is survived by her two brothers Ozzie and Bakani whom she loved dearly
These are the child headed households that I formed EGT to assist. They were orphaned and Ozzie her eldest brother has been the child head.
If you can please spare a dollar kindly send via ecocash or WorldRemit mobile money to
+263772733639 Name: Isabel Rutendo E Dzvova
