"I thought I was going to die, but through counseling I made up my mind to stay healthy," says Helen Nyeko.

Helen, who lives in northern Uganda, tested positive for HIV in 1992 while she was caring for her husband, who was dying from the illness. Two years later, she made the decision to live.

She enrolled in counseling and education courses that taught the importance of living positively with the disease. She soon began receiving antiretroviral medications through her district's Comboni Samaritan Center and became even healthier.