Making it happen in India and my experience to visit India.

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

I am a strong believer in the premise that life is what you make it, if you

truly want something out of life or have specific life goals and if you are

prepared to work hard at it then the life of your dreams can be realised.

I have always loved India and have over the past couple of years become

increasingly interested in the impact of HIV upon Indian society and I have also

always wanted to work in India . Towards the end of 2005 I began to form the

idea behind my own training and coaching company, now having worked tirelessly

for the past two years my company is starting to grow along with an increasing

reputable reputation both in India and the UK .

I have recently returned from India where I undertook an independent nation

wide tour of HIV projects and met numerous people who are living with HIV.I had

worked hard at making this trip happen and worked equally hard at developing a

network of contacts some of whom are now becoming my new friends.

I have always had a passion for India and have travelled there on many

occasions through out my life, I am fascinated by its cultures, I love the

cuisine and I greatly welcome its southern climate during the winter months of

the UK .

The purpose of my visit was personal in the sense that I wished to understand

the impact of HIV on a society of people whom I hold dear to my heart and I was

also in the interested in the potential of business for my own company.

I specifically hoped that I might find some potential opportunities to do some

leadership and mentoring work in India and wanted also to explore the potential

for personal performance coaching with people living with HIV. I have been

developing my own leadership skills and knowledge for many years and have

developed a leadership programme here in the UK at ‘Positive Place’ in southeast

London the first of which is to run in April of 2007 and it is my leadership

work that I truly hope to develop in India.

The hospitality of the Indian people is unlike any I have ever known, I had

attended a conference at ‘The University of Westminster’ during the summer of

2006 in London were I met Arun Khanna, Executive Director of ‘Emcure

Pharmaceuticals’.

This innovative organisation is a leading HIV treatment pharmaceutical company

in India which funds a unique treatment project called ‘TAAL’ which provides

antiretroviral treatments at affordable prices along with counselling and

testing facilities in 5 centres in southern India to a small section of the

population who have access to these services.

I have developed an email relationship with ‘Emcure’ over the past ten months

and have been able to develop a network of contacts throughout India, on my

arrival in India I discovered that an extensive tour of the Delhi and Pune HIV

projects had been arranged for me along with press interviews with ‘The Indian

Express’ and front-page coverage in ‘The Indian Times’ newspapers.

As my tour of India progressed I realised that I had in fact made a number of

assumptions about the current level of awareness in India and the services on

offer to those affected by HIV. What I actually discovered was that information

in the form of health campaigns were extensive and that these campaigns are

directed at the general population.

Articles in the press in relation to HIV appear on a daily basis in India

which keeps HIV very much on the agenda, HIV has not been marginalized in India

and so education is directed at the general population. I also discovered that

HIV programmes and projects were both diverse and extensively spread throughout

India and are funded by ‘WHO’, ‘UNAIDS’, fund raising and the government.

These programmes and projects are organised and staffed by healthcare and

social work professionals and key to the success of the programmes are the

people who are living with HIV who are working tirelessly either in a paid or

voluntary capacity as mentors and peer support workers within their communities.

I will particularly remember the passion and commitment of Manoj Pardesi who

is living with HIV and is the Global Adviser of ‘We Care’ an Asia Pacific

Resource Centre for people living with HIV who hosted my programme of visits in

Delhi and the HIV drop in centre we visited in ‘Old Delhi’.

The commitment and courage of the many people with HIV like Manoj who are

working within these programmes is truly inspirational and sets a leadership

example to all of us who are working in the developed world. Having completed my

HIV tour of India my dearest friend Sue who now lives in India asked me if

anything had come of my visit in terms of whether I had generated any potential

work.

Throughout my tour I met a number of people who are living with HIV who are

working in key roles within differing programmes and numerous people who with

the right support, encouragement and training clearly have great leadership

potential.

I have personally committed myself to providing some leadership training to a

number of projects in India free of charge if a way of meeting my expenses can

be met and I am determined in my commitment to ensuring that this goal is

realized.

Having reflected upon my visit I now realize that a number of significant

things have occurred as a result of my visit which has made both a significant

impact on me and many of the people I met who are living with HIV.

There are currently an estimated 5.7million people living with HIV in India

and only 7% of these people have access to HIV treatments, life expectancy is

low, testing is sporadic, medication has to be paid for personally and there is

little health service.

In India two thirds of the general population live below the poverty line, the

economy in India is one of the fastest growing economies within the world in

which the divide between the haves and the have not’s is fast expanding.

I have now been living with HIV for 22years; one of the first people to be

diagnosed with HIV in the UK , this fact in itself seemed incomprehensible to

all of those who I met.

The majority of people who I met who are living with HIV have been living with

HIV for a relatively short number of years however I did meet a remarkable man

called Jaffer Inamdar the founder and programme manager of an PLHA organisation

in Goa called ‘Positive Lives Foundation’ " PLF-GOA " who is living long term with

HIV and who I now consider to be a personal peer and mentor and like me was one

of the first people in his country to be diagnosed HIV+.

Jaffer has this remarkable ability to light up a room and his dignity, courage

and the leadership in which he faces the many challenges of his work within his

project will always give me a great sense of hope and optimism. Through the

continuing discussions with Jaffer and the many individuals and groups who I met

we were able to explore some of my own experiences and I was able offer some of

my own ideas and believes about living long term with HIV.

In our discussions I was able to share my commitment to my personal

leadership and empowerment and to the important enthuses that I place upon

positive thinking in my life and it as through these discussions and the

feedback that I received that I was able to inspire and encourage many of those

that I met.

One of my greatest memories will always be that of the level of humour which I

encountered, we always seemed to end up laughing a great deal, I specifically

remember sitting on the floor with a group of women sex workers called ‘Devdasi’

in the red light district of the southern city of Pune, before the end of our

meeting we were all laughing with tears in our eyes about the challenges of

encouraging men to wear condoms during intercourse.

My overwhelming and lasting impression of my trip to India is the impressive

and spectacular dignity, courage and humility of the people that I had the

privilege to meet who are living with HIV in India . I will always be inspired

by this overwhelming impression and I am truly humbled by their ability to face

the many challenges of HIV in India in the face of such poverty and in the

absence of treatments which remain inaccessible to the majority of people who

are living with HIV in India today.

Danny West,

Principal Consultant,

RYL Training & Coaching Consultancy.

March 2007.

Email: danaw@...

Positive Lives Goa \ " PLG-Goa\

e-mail: <poslivesfoundation@...>