Who will help an Australian agency to help?. Re: Indian tribal village boycotts women fearing AIDS infection

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

Who would not have been moved to both pity and horror of the following story?

Stigma and discrimination will never be beaten if nothing is done in desperate

situations like this.

An Australian AIDS-care agency, we would like to financially assist the 3 women

and the new-born baby until their housing and work situations are resolved, and

also to contribute to the badly needed AIDS Awareness campaogn that we undertand

the local police are planning.

We are appealing for any reputable community organisation in Hyderabad.Lions,

Rotary, Jaycees etc...to act on our behalf, to safely receive and disburse

monies on our behalf to these three women. Their need is both desperate and

urgent.

Please reply to Haill, The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated, Melbourne,

Australia. Email address: bhaill@...

The story follows:

-----------------------------------------------------

News report: Indian tribal village boycotts women fearing AIDS infection

For two weeks now, two women who helped a woman in need have been subjected to

social boycott by a community for fear of spreading AIDS.

The two women of a remote tribal hamlet in Warangal district, about 100kms from

here, had helped a non-local woman deliver a child since she had no help or

relatives in the hamlet. When Bukhya Sharada confessed to suffering from AIDS, a

terrified community drove her out of the hamlet while the women who helped in

her delivery, Bhanot Sammakka and Bukhya Vimala were boycotted.

The community `panchayat' (governing council) decreed that the two women should

not enter the village for four months by when symptoms of HIV will manifest,

according to the panchayat.

While Sammakka is a cook with the school, Vimala is a health worker at the

Anganwadi centre in the hamlet, Anduku tanda. While parents have prevented

Samakka from cooking the midday lunch for the school children, Vimala has not

been allowed to enter the Anganwadi centre. " Parents threw out the food I

cooked. Now, they are taking back their children to their home to give them

lunch. In fact, children are not coming to school, " said Sammakka.

Vimala said both of them pleaded to undergo any test ordered by the community

but the community remained unmoved. The school teachers who live in Warangal

also tried to convince the community elders that their fears were unfounded but

they did not relent. Sammakka is a widow with a daughter and her only source

livelihood is her job as a cook.

While the mandal officials have asked the two women not to attend to their work,

the police officials have said they would organise an `AIDS awareness programme'

in the hamlet

Akhileshwari, The Deccan Herald, Hyderabad

Source: http://deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug262004/n3.asp

[Guest guest]

Greetings from Melbourne, Australia,

I am most grateful for Dr Ashok Rau's (of Freedom Foundation) invitation to make

contact wth Dr. Troy Cunningham in this boycott situation and the Freedom

foundation's kind offer to be involved with us.

May I look to you for your advice as to the cost of the women's needs, your own

organisation's associated expenses and what you would suggest as a reasonable

financial contribution towards the police AIDS Awareness project.

Could you advise me in terms of American dollars and i will make the necessary

arrangements to transmit these funds to you. For that, I would need to be

advised as to:-

* The name of the recipient

* The name of the bank

* Its address

* And the requisite Account Number.

Do you envision any problems in finding these women?

I will wait on your response.

As today is Friday, a response would enable me to put this in train today ahead

of the weekend.

With kind regards,

Haill,

President,

The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated,

PO Box 1347, ston, , 3199,

AUSTRALIA.

Email: bhaill@...

Website: www.aids.net.au