'She held me as if I was her own mother'

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'She held me as if I was her own mother'

By Bhagwan Singh in Chennai

Thursday, 05 August , 2004, 10:13

A slum dweller has opened her heart and home to an HIV-positive

orphan, setting an example in a country where AIDS victims are

shunned despite having the world's second-largest number of cases.

Wife of a lowly-paid porter in Chennai, Surya Gajendran (30) said

she fell in love with one-year-old Subha when she visited an HIV

children's shelter last year as part of an AIDS education programme.

Now Subha, who arrived at Surya's home a skinny child last December,

is chubby and bounding with mischief as she plays with her two

brothers, nine-year-old Surender and seven-year-old Narender.

" She was so thin, so frail when we brought her home, " said Surya

with a broad grin, showing off the child whose parents died of AIDS.

Surya happened to visit the children's shelter run by the Community

Health Education Society (CHES) non-governmental organisation, as

part of counselling she received about HIV infection risks.

" Subha ran to me and held me as though I was her own mother,

yearning for love, " she recounted, whose husband works as a porter

in a truck transport firm and earns less then 50 rupees a day. " I

came home and told my husband. We have two little boys already and

we were worried whether we could give her a good life. But I

couldn't forget her and the way she responded to me. "

Surya said she had a tough time persuading the children's home that

she would be able to care of Subha. " I went back to the shelter to

convince myself that she needed me and she did. Then I pleaded with

the authorities to let me take her. "

After nearly six months of counseling and training about how to care

for an HIV-positive child -- the virus is spread by transmission of

blood and other bodily fluids -- Subha went home with Surya. The

arrival of Subha in the teeming slum has been an education for

neighbours who feared even coming near an HIV-positive child.

" At first we were scared of touching her, much less cuddling or

kissing her. But, after a few counselling sessions by CHES we

realised it wasn't risky, " said neighbour Chandra Raja. " Now Subha

is so much in demand. She's so cute. "

Inspired by Surya's action, another slum mother, Motchamary

Chidambaram, who has two boys has taken an HIV-positive baby girl,

Nitya, from the AIDS shelter. " We're just back from a temple where

we prayed for her good health, " she said, hugging the child tightly.

The families get vitamins and other medications from the shelter for

the children but no financial help.

When the girls reach 18 months, another test will be done to see

whether they are HIV positive or only tested positive at birth

because of the presence of the virus in their mothers' bodies, the

doctors said.

If they test positive they will receive Anti-Retroviral Therapy

(ART) if their immune systems are unable to cope with ordinary

ailments. Thanks to research advances, many children born with HIV

can now live into at least their teens with drugs.

The children's home was founded by a leading city-based gynecologist

Dr. Manorama in 1994. The shelter now has about three dozen

children. " Not much attention is being given to infected children

and AIDS orphans which most orphanages don't accept, " she said.

Since many AIDS parents are among India's poorest, 'these children

literally are on the street once they're orphaned. That's why I

started this shelter'. She praised the slum women for taking the

children. " No such initiative has come from the well-to-do

families, " she said.

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