Care and Support 50 HIV+ Orphan Children in India

We at Buds of Christ would like to share about some of our young people, who faced challenges and failures in their lives, but yet have emerged as successors in what they firmly believed.

Hariharan is an orphan boy, born with HIV and lives with his grandmother. He completed his 12th school education and joined college, but dropped out in the first semester, as he was not interested in studies but to learn something that is vocational. He tried taking up odd jobs, but could not sustain as he found it did not match his area of interest. In one of the meetings, he expressed his desire to become a driver and Buds of Christ supported the cost for learning driving in a driving school and he has completed it with success. He has received his driving license and now currently a mini-auto driver in a private firm. He is now able to support his grand mother and feels proud saying "I cannot give back what she has given me, because when nobody wanted me when my parents died, she took care of me. I cannot replace that love, but satisfied that I am able to earn and support her now”.

Nadiya, a semi-orphan girl, born with HIV who battled against many storms in her life and stood as an achiever and role model in surpassing all the challenging situations in her life. She faced extreme form of discrimination and violence within her own family due to her HIV status and her mother's condition. She had to fight many challenges of being sent out of home, had to find a temporary stay in a hostel and discriminated when experienced violence from her step brother and their family. She was not sure of her future, as her interest was in nursing but HIV status limited her choice. Following that, her failure in 10th public exams left her totally confused for more than 2 years. She was constantly followed up and supported with counseling and nutrition care, then after two years, she firmly decided she wanted to take up beautician course. She on her own identified a person in her village who taught her the basic skills and referred her to a professional beautician course. She out of her smartness was able to enroll in the course free of cost. Seeing her commitment and interest, one of the trainer recruited her as her assistant in the parlor she owns and now after two years she is now taken complete in charge of the parlor. She was also able to convince the parlor owner in providing training for other girls living with HIV free of cost.

Currently she has been able to train 3 young girls through her references and they also have been able to settle into jobs with her support. Nadiya expresses "The problem or limitation can be changed to opportunity if there is a change in the mind. I wanted to serve people through nursing but HIV placed a limitation for me, but I changed my thought, and here too I am able to serve people and make them present beautiful through my work”.

Karthik, another HIV positive boy, from a bonded labor family in brick industry, and a drop out of school due to the side effects of ARV treatment has changed his life from a negative situation to a positive hope. Though he was a good oratorical speaker in his school and a friendly person, his knowledge of his HIV status was, when he was in his 9th standard. That gave him shock and left him passive for more than a year. Then after completing his 10th with the support of a sensitive counselor, he did not feel encouraged to do anything further as the self stigma of HIV overwhelmed him.

The peer support from the support group and constant home visits brought him out, but did not encourage positive thoughts in him. It took two more years to come out of that to think about his future and all during that time, Buds of Christ supported his nutrition needs and emotional needs. He tried to vocationally equip himself, and joined Photoshop and Coreldraw designing course. After successful completion and practice, he later joined a photo studio. In the studio, he learnt the photography and designing techniques. Now he has over 5 years of experience in photography, managing a photo-studio and has the ability to train others in his professional line. Looking at his commitment to work and honesty, his boss offered him to completely own and use a well set-up photo studio.

His message to the young people is "HIV is within our bodies, but it cannot defeat our future. I was depressed and lost all hope, when I came to know about my status, but now I stand with confidence and say WE CAN when we have the confidence within ourselves”.