“Only South Africa has more people living with HIV [than India does]“. Andra Pradesh (of which Hyderabad is the capital) is one of the hardest hit areas. In some villages in northern Andra Pradesh, there is at least one person living with HIV/AIDS per household. AIDS carries an extreme stigma here. I read yesterday about a HIV positive woman who couldn’t find a doctor to treat her during her pregnancy. The article didn’t say it, but that may have made the difference between her child getting or not getting HIV. The article was about charlatans who are selling “AIDS cures” to uneducated people. Not only are they preventing people from seeking the right treatment, but these “cures” often involve strict diets which actually serve to make the symptoms worse.
The Freedom Foundation is one organisation working for people with HIV/AIDS here and in Bangalore. I visited them on Tuesday.
They do have adult residents, and they have a clinic every day where people can come for treatment while they’re well enough to live at home, but that’s not what I saw. I was hanging out with the twenty or so HIV+ children who live there. The youngest is 3, the eldest is about 12, I think. Some of them have mental disabilities caused by the neurological effects of the disease. One little girl was too sick to get up, and just watched from her bed. She looked like an AIDS patient. She can’t have been more than 6 years old, but her little body is clearly being ravaged by the “worm inside”. That’s how the younger children understand their situation. The Freedom Foundation make a point of being as clear to the kids as they can. They know that there is a “worm inside” which makes them sick. When they get older, if they get old enough, all the transmission methods will be explained to them. But for now they know that if they get cut they must go immediately and tell one of the staff.
The boys are mostly boisterous, as boys are. They’re fascinated by digital watches and things that make beeping sounds. Many of the girls just wanted to sit on my knee, or climb on my back. One little girl never spoke while I was there. I picked her up a couple of times, and she really seemed to appreciate it, but she had this blank look in her eyes that hinted at some terrible experiences. I watched her stare blankly in the direction of the cricket game the boys were playing and my heart broke to realise that she would probably not reach the age of ten.
They’re just normal children who want to play silly repetitive games, who want a hug, and want to go in the swing. They’re just normal children, but they’re dying.
I spoke at length with the manager about what the Freedom Foundation does, their future plans and their needs. Apparently some recent contributions from a large Christian charity (he couldn’t remember the name exactly) means that they are not in dire need of food and medicine any more. I asked how I could help, and he gave some suggestions.
I’ve wanted to find some way I can contribute that makes sense in the short time that I’ll be here. It would feel weird to make regular contributions until April, and then stop when our financial situation changes again. But one of his suggestions struck a chord with me. He’d really like to have a library for the children, with a selection of books recommended by someone with educational experience. So I’ve decided to set that as a goal, by the time I leave, I want to have a fully stocked library set up there. I’m going to an educational bookshop on Monday, to discuss what I should be stocking in the library, and I’m going to do a budget to see how much we can afford to spend on it.
If you pray, I’d appreciate your prayers for this endeavour.
Tg
