Former HIV/AIDs Ambassador, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah, says her recent suicide threat on Facebook was not to court public sympathy.
This is because she’s suffered from depression for some time now. Also, she contemplated suicide twice; the first being in Germany, after the birth of her third child.
According to Joyce Dzidzor who is also known as Yawavi Yawa, if there is one person she harbours a lot of hate for then it is Afia Schwarzenegger.
In 2014, when Joyce dropped the bombshell that she did not have HIV and had lied to the Ghana AIDS Commission, the condemnation came from all quarters with people calling her a liar and a thief.
Apart from her controversy with the AIDS Commission which affected the credibility of the organisation, Joyce also made the headlines in 2016 with her open letter to former President, John Mahama, demanding compensation for services rendered to the Ghana AIDS Commission.
In the letter, she explained that her first attempt to commit suicide was caused by comedian Afia Schwarzenegger in 2016.]
Joyce said Afia Schwarzenegger was one of the people who did not go easy on her and called her on a radio to insult her.
“I didn’t know I had depression until the time I put out an open letter out to former president John Mahama. I was in Germany by then and pregnant, she called me on phone, insulted me and called me all kinds of names.”
“I was so hurt because I knew what I had done for the AIDS Commission, I knew the sacrifices I had gone through and sweeping my efforts under the carpet like that and damning my image and personality was just too much for me to take.”
“Honestly, I cried so much that I landed in the hospital and that was where I was told I had depression,” she said.
According to Joyce, Afia Schwarzenegger is a very mean person who rides on peoples’ pain.
“As for that lady, I never want to come face to face with her. I do not want to have anything to do with her ever in my life. She has hurt a lot of people and for me, I leave her to God to judge.”
She stated that she regrets taking the role of an HIV/AIDs Ambassador. This is because revealing her HIV status has rather brought untold hardship on her.
“I sacrificed a lot and put in a lot of effort into educating the youth even when I was being paid GHc800 and while I was pregnant and then someone just comes and calls me a liar and a thief, it really hurt me.”
“Afia Schwarzenegger should watch her mouth and walk in peoples’ shoes for just a minute before judging. She is a cruel person and should know it is not everybody that you treat with disrespect,” she added.