Care and Support 50 HIV+ Orphan Children in India

I am Shalini, HIV positive who had joined Buds of Christ when I was thirteen years old. Though I had started my treatment at the age of 5 years, in my  late adolescence, I had lot of questions about my HIV status and was least interested to live with the HIV condition. I have been evolved as a peer counsellor only through the support groups and various trainings at Buds of Christ, where I have gained information and also encouraged to live positively with HIV. This experience has now helped me to work with young people of my age and smaller children like me .

As part of the care and support programme, we organise support groups, make home visits to equip the care taker and the child with correct information and also provide emergency care and nutrition support .

Last month, we made a visit to Subalakshmi's house. She is 17 years old, dropped out of school and currently working in the spinning mill near her house. She is one of the five children (two of them are HIV positive) who are looked after by her grandmother. Her grand mother's income doing odd jobs is not sufficient for the family and so Subalakshmi works to support the family too. The visit was primarily to establish a support for Subalakshmi and also plan out a sustained future for Subalakshmi through developing her skills. As the current work is not development oriented, she was also encouraged to enrol in tailoring course that would be supported through the support systems. An agreement was made for her to undergo tailoring course by the grandmother on part time basis and for Subalakshmi it was a new experience for her, this year.

While, we were leaving her house, she held on to my hand and expressed "I felt so much loved and cared and even when I had cut the cake today at the hospital at the support group meeting, I felt so emotional, as Ihave not celebrated my birthday since my mother's death”.