Say NO-UNITE to end violence against women

'Community Profiles in Courage: Making a Difference to HIV, Gender and Human Rights'

A full time home maker, who had not heard the term AIDS or knew what it meant, Princey Mangalika's life received a sudden jolt, when her husband who had returned from Germany fell sick and was subsequently diagnosed with HIV. In the weeks that followed, her comfortable life that was full of love, laughter and protection broke into pieces. With her husband dead and her house in ashes, she found herself alone with her two daughters on the parched streets of Colombo.

But Princey is a fighter. From the depths of despair with no worldly possession to her name, she decided to fight. Today she is a grandmother, has a formidable series of professional accomplishments including the Presidentship of Lanka plus from 2006-2008. Today she is also preparing herself for another first in Sri Lanka - the first Positive Women’s network in the country.

In 2000, when Princey’s husband returned from Germany, he was sick, had lost weight and had constant diarrhea. Soon he had to be hospitalized where he was diagnosed with HIV. Even before Princey found out about her husband’s status, a hospital attendant leaked this information to her villagers.

Unable to bear the shame and guilt, he committed suicide by consuming poison. This left Princey completely alone and vulnerable. The loss of her husband did not soften the villagers’ attitude towards her and her two daughters. In fact, it only grew worse; they demanded that she leave the village immediately.

Princey and her daughters were trapped in their house whilst the villagers surrounded her house and demanded that she leave. The torture continued for four days. On the fourth day she woke up to a blazing fire: the villagers had set fire to her home. "As the fire took hold, I scanned the crowd that had gathered outside. It seemed as if everybody from the village had woken up in the middle of the night to watch the destruction of my simple home" she recalls.

Attempts to salvage any of their possessions were futile, the fire was too intense and all they could do was watch, as the fire engulfed the last of their possessions and destroyed their pride. Left with nothing, she and her two daughters sat on the wayside for days without any food or a proper place to sleep. Eventually they walked into Princey's mother’s house.

She remembers the pain and heartache of the next few months. She mourned for her husband and the children mourned for their father. They had also lost their homes and had been brutally rejected by their family, friends and neighbours who they trusted. As if this was not enough, she started to get sick, and on her doctor's advice she did a test for HIV. She was found to be positive.

This time Princey was ready to fight every obstacle that came her way. She knew that she had already hit the lowest ebb in her life. The Salvation Army in Sri Lanka put her in touch with Lanka Plus, the positive peoples' organization in Sri Lanka.

Princey Mangalika went on to head that organization and soon was at the fore front of many a campaign to fight for the rights of people who live with HIV. She was the first to break the silence and shame surrounding HIV and women's dispossession of property in Sri Lanka with her powerful personal testimony at the Regional Court of Women on HIV, inheritance and property right in 2007, paving the way for other Sri Lankan women to come forward to be educated on how to reclaim rights and dignity.

Personally she fought for herself and for her daughters. Today they are both married with their own families. She takes enormous pride in this and sees this as her biggest achievement. She also fought throughout the years to regain her husband’s land, and on her daughters marriage she was rewarded. Her in laws allowed the property to be gifted to her eldest daughter.