This project aims to reduce the number of children orphaned and abandoned due to their parents dying of AIDS by ensuring timely access to Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy for such parents. Treating the parents will keep them healthy and productive and they can care and provide for their children. This project will treat 150 parents for a minimum period of 2 years and will benefit approximately 450 children. Treating the parent benefits the child... keeping the family intact is our goal!
India has over 2 million people living with HIV in the general population. This means that entire families are both infected/affected with children facing the brunt of their parents condition. Parents who have limited access to treatment due to poverty ultimately succumb to the infection and this results in their children not only being orphaned but also abandoned cause extended family members do not want to care for such surviving kids. Such children end up on the streets and face exploitation.
By addressing the treatment needs of parents this project will ensure that progression to AIDS is halted. This will result in increased longevity of life & productivity and children in such households will be able to enjoy/benefit from the presence and well being of their parents. These children will also be able to lead normal lives, attend school and receive treatment in case they are also infected. On the whole this project aims at protecting and keeping the family unit intact.
The long term impact is keeping the parents alive and the family intact. Parents productivity will increase due to their improved health, number of orphans and abandoned children will reduce. Children will develop and grow into healthy adults and this cycle will continue. This will also result in lesser children being institutionalized, reduce child headed households and overall mitigation of the HIV problem. Estimated 600 direct beneficiaries while the indirect could be in the thousands.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
