HIV+ children, Guntur
A report about HIV+ children in Guntur who work to support their families:
Fifty-year-old Mani, a former sex worker and HIV-positive, adopted orphan Sambasiva who too is infected like her. But finding a mother has been no solace for the 15-year-old who has never gone to school. Mani is too sick to work, which leaves Sambasiva to toil 12 hours a day in a vegetable shop to earn a meagre Rs 25. Living with Mani in a dingy room in a brothel, Sambasiva is often sent out by neighbouring aunties to buy cigarettes and liquor when clients arrive, for which service he gets small tips. Ratnam, coordinator of NGO HELP, which works with HIV-infected children in Chilakaluripeta, says it is extremely difficult to motivate such children to study. “So all we do is provide them with food and facilitate anti-retro viral therapy (ARV) in advanced cases.”Picture and extract from this Outlook report by Madhavi Tata.
There’s an office-sponsored medical camp going on at our office and a couple of my team members had been there for a checkup. As I was asking them what all tests they did, just in a fit of a talk I asked if they test for HIV as well..
What I got in return was a long hard stare as if I just swore at them for no reason.. I thought it would just be a normal question, as this is something everyone is likely to get - and you don’t have to indulge in unsafe sex to get it. Any bad medical treatment with used syringes, blood etc could get you infected. But the idea of HIV “always” being associated with unsafe sex and the idea that anyone HIV+ is “dirty” is very prevelant even among most of the well-educated class…
No wonder every HIV+ person seems to marginalized for apparently no fault of his.. They need to be cared, not shunned by false prejudices…
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