RONALDO "Selfmade Ronaldo" Castillo has made it his life’s mission to end discrimination against people living with HIV and Aids.
To do this, the 24-year-old uses social media to debunk common myths about HIV and Aids, to stop the spread of misinformation which Castillo believes is the root cause of the discrimination people living with HIV and Aids endure every day.
So far, the social media influencer has amassed an impressive, combined following of over 25,000 people across his TikTok, Facebook and Instagram platforms, where he is candid with his fanbase about his HIV-positive status, while creating content to reduce stigma.
“It (discrimination) follows you everywhere you go. You enter a new school, it follows you. You moving to a new area, it follows you. I believe most of the discrimination is because of a lack of understanding.”
In an interview with Sunday Newsday to commemorate World Aids Day, celebrated on December 1, Castillo explained his passion for HIV/Aids advocacy and the courage he had to foster to do so.
“I know for somebody living with HIV and Aids, it is not easy to do what I am doing. A lot of people would be like, how I got the courage to do this. But in reality, it took years of me building that courage.”
I wanted to make a difference
Most 11-year-old children in TT are busy preparing for their Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination – possibly anxious about their results and praying to pass for their first choice. Looking back at his life at that age, SEA stress isn’t a core memory for Castillo.
Instead, Castillo recalls coming to terms with his HIV-positive status and the sobering reality that he would be living with the virus for the rest of his life.
“I was young. I knew of my status, but I didn’t understand it clearly. So, I never used to study it at that moment.”
Castillo contracted the virus as a baby from his mother, who was unaware of her HIV status, since her partner, Castillo’s father, did not disclose his diagnosis to her.
At that time, Castillo explained, pregnant women were not required to undergo mandatory HIV testing at public healthcare facilities, compared with now where testing is compulsory to help end mother-to-baby transmission of the virus.
The mother-to-baby infection rate is now less than two per cent, according to the National Aids Co-ordinating Committee (NACC).
Taking the advice of her doctors, Castillo’s mother placed him in a children’s home with the mandate to care for children living with HIV.
It was only when he was required to leave the protective bubble of the home, did he truly understand the full scope of his diagnosis.
“In the home it didn’t have no hate. It had love…A maxi used to carry us to school. The whole school would be like, 'that’s the Aids bus,’ or ‘we come from the Aids home’ or ‘them is the Aids children.’ So, in the home it wasn’t a problem but from the time you step outside the home, it was a big problem.”
Castillo recalled an incident with his best friend, whom he lived with at the home, which
