Countess with an AIDS mission: Countess Albina du Boisrouvray

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Sunday, December 7, 2003

Countess with a mission. Countess Albina du Boisrouvray

Albina du Boisrouvray is a Countess with a difference. Shunning the

luxuries of a jet-set lifestyle, she works today for the

ehabilitation of Aids orphans. At the recent International Aids

Conference in Chennai, Ranjita Biswas met her to find out more about

her mission in India.

She dug into the hot curry nonchalantly. She seemed completely at

ease with the crowd in the humid dining hall, mingling with doctors,

researchers and members from NGOs during the recent 4th International

Conference on Aids India organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Research

Foundation, Chennai. Indeed, Countess Albina du Boisrouvray seems to

know more about women with HIV infection and orphaned children across

the globe, from South Africa, to the backwaters of Uruguay and to the

sands of Rajasthan, than many natives.

Albina is the founder president of Association Francois –Xavier

Bagnoud (AFXB) with its headquarters in Switzerland. At the Chennai

conference, she was honoured with the " Lifetime Contribution Award "

for " fighting the Aids pandemic and caring for Aids orphans and

vulnerable children. " In India, AFXB operates in all the 35 states

and union territories. This summer, she was also on Time magazine as

one of the " heroes " who have made a difference through their work.

Talk about orphaned children left behind by parents with Aids, or

abandoned by a cruel society, and Albina's face lights up with

passion. It has been a long journey indeed for her from the luxury of

chateaus, jet-set parties to working among the poor and the deprived.

A French countess, journalist and movie producer, Albina's life

changed forever when in 1986, her 24 year old son Francois-Xavier

Bagnoud, a helicopter rescuer, died in an accident in Mali.

Shattered, she contemplated suicide. But then, she thought she would

be a " wimp " if she did so. " My son was a rescue pilot, my job was to

carry on his work at a different level, of rescuing people in

distress, of course, within my capacity, " Albina decided.

As a college student in Paris, Albina was a part of the 60s' Leftist

student movement. Later, she was exposed to the huge health problem

because of Aids looming ahead through association with Mann,

who was known for his work on the effects of health policies on human

rights, particularly in the field of HIV/Aids.

In 1989, Albina sold off three-quarters of the large fortune she had

inherited from her father and launched AFXB with a global mission to

assist Aids orphans and abandoned Aids/HIV children. " Everybody has a

lobby, but not so the children, " she says with feeling. She started

out by establishing shelter homes for them.

By 2010, UN experts estimate that the number of orphans will reach

106 million, around 25 per cent of them AIDS orphans.

In 1990 Albina went to Africa. " There I sat in a village in Uganda,

looking at the women, many of them widows of AIDS-afflicted husbands,

and their children, stigmatised, poor. " The women didn't beg for

charity, they wanted money to buy cows, so that they could sell the

milk, and seeds to grow vegetables to feed the orphans. " I knew about

the micro-credit revolution in Bangladesh, and wanted to mould the

idea to local needs. AIDS is a different story, as you know, and

started by giving grants from the fund to the women... "

" Today these women are so self-assured that it's a pleasure to

observe them..., " Albina's laughter has a hint of pride.

In the mid-90s, Albina's Indian journey began. " Even that early I

realised through my work that India was going to face a big health

problem due to HIV/Aids, especially because of the huge population.

There would be orphans, people needed to be educated. " But she didn't

have a clue where to begin. " Well, I knew about Goa . I could

approach the Catholic sisters and priests who ran schools and they

helped. " However, when she wanted to talk about sex education, it was

not very welcome. Later, she started a shelter for children for sex

workers and the work began.

A fortunate meeting with a doctor from Rajasthan, who was working in

the USA, helped her to begin her work there, at first by starting a

day shelter. Now it covers 180 villages in Rajasthan. Today, Albina

says, there is a political will to fight the disease in the country.

Of course, the level of efforts differ from state to state, but in

places like Tamil Nadu it is particularly strong, she observes.

" I see health as a part of human rights, a part of child rights, "

Albina says, " There's so much to do. But as I look at the women and

children on field trips I get the energy to go on. " TWF

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20031207/spectrum/main4.htm