Give a future for 950 Indian kids living with HIV

Mukesh is 16 and has been moving about with his mother and so avoiding regular treatment and schooling - they are both HIV positive. Our volunteers tracked him down to his grandmother’s house, she claimed that mother and son were in a far off place. But one of Mukesh’s friends was listening in and pointed him out - he was in the village all the time! Mukesh told us that his mother had taken him for tests and treatment from time to time but claimed that he didn’t know the reason. Since he had been so hard to find he was told bluntly that he had HIV. He was shocked but soon got over it and his granny was eventually won over. Mukesh has been back on treatment for over a year now and is happy in school. He wants to be a driver.

We are currently working with 451 children - nearly equal numbers of boys and girls. We also work with 474 young adults, these are mostly young men since we find that they need more inputs in order to protect their sexual partners, their spouses or potential spouses, and themselves. All the work takes place in eight Districts of South India.

Among the 451 children, seven are newly identified and include a six month old baby. Apart from the baby, all have been started on treatment. Inevitably some children are irregular in collecting or taking their tablets, of the 34 all but 14 have been motivated to be regular – for now at least! In addition, there are 17 children not on treatment and only one was brought under treatment in the quarter, it is an uphill task. There are 10 children who refuse treatment outright, despite our best efforts. Gradually this number is going down, sadly because they get a serious medical problem which forces them into the system.

23 children are on second line treatment and are specially followed up together with 32 others who may require this treatment in the future. 168 out of 240 children requiring monitoring tests have taken them, this 70% achievement is low and needs to be looked into. Of the 87 children seen in the field with some sort of medical problem 57 were treated, mostly for fever, skin problems, diarrhea or oral thrush – five were diagnosed with tuberculosis were given hospitalized care.

We encourage age-appropriate disclosure of HIV status – best done by the guardian. Of the 74 children who may have inadequate age-related awareness we reached 49 and guardians subsequently disclosed status to seven of them. 175 children received government grant, 185 nutritional support and 202 received educational support this year.

230 adolescents and 474 young adults are under follow up for premarital counselling by volunteers and 78 attended formal premarital counselling sessions – eight were at ‘high risk’. Five marriages have taken place in the reporting period, four to HIV positive spouses.

Thank you so much for your support.

(Names changed and photos are representative)

Our project is currently working in 8 districts, each with staff and volunteers attached to the local HIV positive persons network. We currently follow up 484 positive children below 18 years of age and another 443 children who are now young adults.15 children were newly identified of which only four are below 4 years of age and all have started ART treatment. 18 were newly brought under follow up.

We helped with 202 medical problems during the year requiring treatment, fever, skin problems and diarrhoea predominated. There were also 16 cases diagnosed with tuberculosis. There are now only seven children refusing treatment for one reason or another. As usual some take their treatment irregularly, we followed up over 100 such cases.

We helped 63 guardians to talk to their wards about their HIV infection and the importance of treatment. 124 children have newly received the government grant as ‘vulnerable children’ and another 289 have received nutritional support, 99 have received educational support. We have given pre-marital counselling to 132 young adults and helped 24 of them to reveal their HIV status to their life partners who were free of HIV. About half of the marriages are to HIV negative partners.

Through the good supervision of our network of volunteers, the standard regimen of anti-retroviral treatment and supportive treatment for other medical problems keeps most of the children healthy. Unfortunately 36 children again have detectable viral levels which puts the kid’s health in danger. 26 have been put on a more rigorous medical regimen known as “second-line” treatment.

However, the drugs are in short supply and it is difficult to persuade the health centres to start the regimen early, before the kids get sick. It is simple, we owe it to these children to do all we can to get the treatment they need and we are eternally grateful to all of you who donate to make that possible.

Thank you so much for your support