Ashraya Holistic Care Centre in New Delhi

[Guest guest]

Ashraya Centre Gives Positive Children Hope to Brave the World

21 June 2009

New Delhi — When Akshay Kumar left his wife, Radhika, in Mumbai to take up a

truck driver's job in Haryana, she hoped for a better life because it was a

fairly well paying job. Travelling all over north India, he got involved with

another woman whom he married.

When he fell sick, he visited a clinic and was told he had tuberculosis. More

tests revealed that he was HIV-positive.

His world suddenly crumbled. Kumar then visited the Ashraya Holistic Care Centre

in New Delhi and was counselled on how to piece his life together again.

He got free treatment and soon realised that he must get his two wives tested

for HIV.

The bad news broke again. Not only were they both positive, his two children

were also infected, prompting him to register all of them with Ashraya for

counselling and treatment.

Learning to cope

" Good care and counselling has helped these children to bravely face the world.

No one can tell that they are HIV- positive by just looking at them, " says Henry

Thangzamang, project coordinator, Action India AIDS project which runs Ashraya.

One of the children, 17-year-old Ali, is now in college and lives a normal life.

Today, Akshay is no more, but his wives and children have learnt to live

courageously.

In the past seven years, they have become physically and emotionally strong.

Like them, there are many others who are learning to cope.

Many children who are HIV-positive face discrimination from their families. They

find they have no one to run to so they join Ashraya Holisitc Care Centre. We

show them love, care and give them hope that being infected is not the end of

the world, " Thangzamang says.

Dealing with stigma

It is not easy running such a centre. Thangzamang often faces situations that

are heart-wrenching. He recently picked a glass of water that Siddharth had just

used.

Siddharth screamed saying that he should not use the glass as he would get HIV.

He said his grandmother had warned everyone at home never to touch anything he

had laid hands on or use the same utensils he used.

Thangzamang was unmoved and he calmly drank the water left in the glass to make

a point that HIV was not spread by sharing utensils.

Initially, Siddharth was shocked and speechless. Then, he ran over, hugged him,

sobbing.

Children are innocent victims. They do not play a role in getting infected with

HIV. Many of them are born sick, but that does not mean we should neglect them.

If we do then the next generation is also killed " .

Love and care

" I always tell parents, caretakers and medical officers that we should handle

HIV-positive patients with care.

" Let us try to bring a smile to their faces. We need to treat them the way we

would want to be treated, " Thangzamang says.

Many countries have treated people living with HIV/AIDS with disdain.

The situation in India is not different from other developing countries with the

highest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the world. HIV is regarded as

taboo among the locals. People do not talk about it for fear of being

stigmatised, more or less because it is associated with sex.

The need for openness

A report by UNAIDS in 2007 showed that about 5.7 million Indians are living with

the disease.

Even though the Indian health ministry put it at 2.5 million, the truth is that

the disease is spreading on a daily basis and needs all the information required

to curtail the spread among the people.

" Over 200,000 children are living with the virus, while up to 50,000-60,000

babies are born to HIV-positive mothers annually, but this still remains a

hidden issue in India, " says Javed Naqi, an Indian international health scholar

and senior research fellow on HIV/AIDS.

" People in the rural areas do not want to reveal their HIV status because of the

stigma associated with it. This has contributed to so many deaths, " he says.

Naqi also points out that the introduction of sex education in schools that

would have provided basic information to the students has failed because sex is

not discussed openly in the country.

" Pregnant women have no access to the 'mother-to-child transmission education'

programme. And because tradition forbids women from questioning their husbands'

sex life, they fall victims to HIV/AIDS, " he says.

The Indian government has also refused to declare open war against HIV/AIDS and

has decided to live in denial because of the fear that the disease will have an

economic implication in terms of tourism and the economic development of the

country.

Therefore, the populace is denied the right to declare their HIV/AIDS status. If

they did, they would also get better treatment.

However, seven years ago, the government started the Action India AIDS project

which gives free treatment to HIV- positive patients.

Patients are referred from government hospitals, some patients are brought by

parents, others by NGOs and more information about the centre is spread by word

of mouth.

The scourge will remain for sometime due to the conservative background, the

size of the country and behavioral changes.

Should the issue remain taboo to discuss and allow millions of people to die out

of ignorance and denial of basic education on how the disease is transmitted?

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