AIDS NGO Crisis: Please Suggest a solution

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum Members,

The WORLD AIDS DAY is just over. Inspite of all the efforts to combat the

disease, the number of PLWHA is increasing daily in the developing countries.

Moved by the sufering of people infected and affected by the virus, the

Philanthropists are motivated to start the programs at different levels like

Awareness, VCTC, Care and Treatment etc. I am part of such program for more than

3 years. I would like to share my experiences of more than 3 years of my work as

a Psychologist and Counselor in the resource limited settings.

The program I am working in was strated in May 2001 by our NGO. We have

registered more than 800 patients till now. Since last 4 months, there is a

major problem going on between the higher authorities in the organization. The

legal bettle is going on and I and my team members do not know till when it will

go on……. The patients that come for the follow-up find it shocking more than the

shock of their own HIV status. We have our set up both in urban as well as rural

area. The office of the rural set up is closed disappointing 100s of patients.

I would like to share the case of one of our patients with all of you. In the

initial days of our program few people from a village nearly 200 kms. away from

our centre brought one female who had full blown AIDS and was on the death bed.

Her husband and other family memebers wanted her to die. The team members helped

her to survive. Slowly, she started getting better and now she leads a good

quality of life. Last week when she came for the follow up, seeing the situation

at our centre, she broke down. Her question was, “why did you save me if you had

to leave me alone like this?” We all were in tears and moved by her question.

It is difficult for all of us to generate hope in patients.

There are many psychological reactions that I have observed in the patients in

last couple of months due to the state of the program. There are several impacts

of this legal fight on the staff and the patients:

No Funds

No salary for the staff

No medicines for the patients

No place to continue our work.

Resignation of the team members and lose of the skilled people

As a counselor and a person who is interested in serving PLWHA, what should I

do? Options for me are:

Leave the poor and sick people as they are and find a new job for me.

Continue fighting for the cause inspite of all the hurdles.

I have chosen the second option for me. Till now the result is NIL. We are

arranging medicines on our own but we do not know till how far we will be able

to continue like this. My question to the forum is:

Am I right in deciding to continue the fight?

What can I do more so that it becomes an effective strategy?

Kindly giude me.

Regards,

Trupti Desai

E-mail: <truptid_69@...>