Physical Health India Project #11254

Care and Support 50 HIV+ Orphan Children in India

by Buds of Christ Charitable Trust

Project Report | Dec 5, 2013
Overcoming Stigma | Moving Ahead

By Mary Julie | Director - Programs

World AIDS day is commemorated on the December 1^st of every year. Buds of Christ commemorated this day at the center with 40 children living with and affected by HIV and their caretakers to encourage young people to think ahead and not allow the stigma affect their dreams and goals.

Three young volunteers living with HIV came forward to share their experiences of living with HIV, to encourage the other adolescents and family members to look beyond their current experiences.

For Radha “Though I was born with HIV, I came to realize my HIV status only when I was doing my 8^th standard. At that time, I could not accept it and even thought of committing suicide because people around me stated that HIV is contracted only to people who are engaged in immoral behaviour”.

For Baskaran ”When I was studying 6^th standard I had come to know my HIV status and my parents had died much earlier due to AIDS. On receiving the test result my immediate thought was “why me?” and I felt no purpose of living and wanted to commit suicide”.

For Kumaran “When I was in my Class 2 both my parents died to AIDS and so I was taken for HIV test and diagnosed HIV positive; for me living with the virus was easier to cope but being neglected by my own relatives because of my HIV and orphan status was more tormenting “.

It has been the counseling and support group that made a difference in all of them to accept their status and set goals for their future.

On what message each one would like to give their peers living in similar circumstances on the world AIDS day, they had expressed

Radha – “Do not allow the negative remarks affect you. God has a purpose for your life, so trust and hold on to your dream and follow on.”

Baskaran – “Don’t lose your confidence, there is meaning to life even after HIV”

Kumaran – “Live for yourself with a purpose, Don’t listen to critical voices”

Permalink

Oct 22, 2013
Leadership skills from Singapore STAR Academy

By Mary Julie | Director - Programs

Team Building Game

A three-day leadership training was organized for young adolescents by the STAR academy based in Singapore at Buds of Christ office, India. The programme has been organized in evolving leaders among young people to be future leaders of hope and courage to other children and young people like them.

The three day workshop focused on three major areas, first “Knowing oneself”;

“When they started the day and told us to write our special skill or talent that would be self encouraging, I felt very funny as we have always thought self praise will result in pride. But at the end of the third day it helped me realise that this step has boosted my self esteem and made me feel more confident about myself” said an orphan boy living with HIV

The second area on “YOU and others “;

“I used to be very depressed because my mother often complains and scolds me. On the second day on coping with your thoughts, I learnt how important it is to ignore the negative thoughts and holding on to it will make you more depressed” expressed an adolescent girl living with her widowed mother

The Third was “We”, where the members focus on a common goal and working together in realizing the goal as a team.

“When we had game, I just got involved completely in the game and tried to focus on winning as a team. Later during reflections, I could learn how much this game made me realise the potential that I had as a leader which I had not realized earlier” said an orphan adolescent boy

The exercises included self assessment of themselves using DISC profiling, followed by team building exercise under stress conditions that brought in the various characteristics of who takes the lead and who is supportive and who is an encourager and who remains silent.

On the final day, the adolescents were also able to evolve short-term projects to help people like them. The two major projects that the adolescents have evolved is leadership training for new young people who are in the neighboring taluk and life skills for adolescents through peer-based strategy.

At the end of the workshop the participants were awarded certificates acknowledging their participation.

Project Planning by Adolescents

Permalink

Sep 18, 2013
Reproductive Health Education - Need of the hour for Adolescents

By Mary Julie | Programs Director

HIV treatment availability through district ART centers and the link ARV centers have enabled rural adolescents to avail the ARV drugs without much constraint. Buds of Christ has been working with over 150 adolescents for the last four years in Namakkal district and among them are 40 adolescents living with HIV. The two major issues affecting HIV positive adolescents are;

Poor adherence among adolescents living with HIV:

Close monitoring of adherence among adolescents living with HIV reveals that there is poor adherence during adolescence. Fear of death, fear of being discriminated by their peers on knowing their status and fear of AIDS related symptoms, strong feeling of being a burden to the family dominate most adolescents. Often, adolescents have considered suicide attempts and neglect towards treatment as solutions.

HIV positive adolescents support group meetings

Support group was initiated at the Government ART Center once a month while they come to receive ART drugs. The support groups enabled to find coping strategies and has evolved them as strong peer influencers.

A 16 years old orphan boy was poor adherer to treatment, as he felt the medications were causing memory loss, lack of support from the extended family made him feel he was burdening them with care thus he wanted to die early. Becoming part of support group, he was resistant for 3 months, but later on seeing the confidence and motivation among his peers, he made a decision to adhere. He attributes the support from peers has helped him change the decision.

Lack of positive prevention skills for adolescents living with HIV:

HIV positive adolescents need guidance to make responsible choices over their sexual relationships, in preventing new infections. The focus on Positive adolescents have been limited only to treatment assessment and there are instances where adolescents living with HIV have taken decisions of marrying early without disclosing their status and have caused new infections among their partners.

Devi 16 year old orphan living with HIV, a poor adherer to medication made her health condition very severe. She also got involved into a relationship with a boy 21 years and married without revealing her status to him. Now, the boy is infected and she is pregnant.

Strategy - Life skills based sexual and reproductive health programme:

The life skills programme involves young people living with HIV to openly talk their concerns and fear around relationships and also make responsible choices of preventing infections to other young people. The fortnightly sessions organised at Buds of Christ provides a platform for young people in rural areas to communicate their values, know more about themselves, understand the adolescent development stages, and learn to cope with emotions and stress and understand vulnerability in risky behaviors.

Beena , 20 year old orphan living with HIV has been part of the adolescent life skills group. Marriage pressures mounted yet she was very firm in making a decision that she will get married to an HIV positive person who is aware of her status. She expressed that the information gained through the life skills sessions enabled her to be assertive in making right choices and accessing SRH services during pregnancy and delivery. Beena enjoys good relationship with a husband and has a child who is HIV negative.

These peer support programmes for adolescents living with HIV have enabled young people to find support from one another and also establish higher goals for their future. The need to create a space for adolescents living with HIV in the health care settings is the need of the hour.

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.