Child Protection India Project #30008

Support 500 HIV Children in trauma in Tamilnadu

by Society for Poor People Development (SPPD)

Support 500 HIV Children in trauma in Tamilnadu

Project Report | Dec 14, 2021
New Hope

By Raju Joseph | Project Leader

The reporting period of three months since October this year has proved to be eventful in its own rights. Even the physically able bodied members belonging to the unorganized labor sections find it extremely difficult to find livelihood sources in these pandemic times. In such circumstances the lives of the persons living with HIV and their children is very pathetic.

As the children living with HIV and the adults have to undergo the ART therapy mandatory for their very survival, their nutritional requirements are very high. But while the ART medicine is given to these victims of HIV by the government free of cost, they have to find their own sources the vital food requirement.

And hence the children living with HIV and the children of those parents living with HIV who form part of the project were being helped out during the period with dry food kits and nutrition kits. We are able to carry out this intervention with the assistance from Give India. Both the children living with HIV and the adults living with HIV are given the nutritional food kits and dry rations for food every month respectively.

The peer meetings which used to be part of our main HIV activities are not being held for long thanks to the need to keep pandemic protocols. With the NGO involvement having become minimal due to the shrinking funds for HIV related activities as the Covid pandemic has become the main focus and priority during the last two years.

There is high degree of hesitation and apprehensions among the persons living with HIV here to receive the Covid vaccination jabs as they already have poor immunity. And we have been involved in counseling them to receive both the medical vaccination at the earliest and to maintain social vaccination norms such as wearing masks, social distancing and washing of hands etc.

The schools have been reopened after a long time and the condition of the children living with HIV has to be closely monitored as maintaining the CD4 count of those living with HIV is of paramount importance.

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Aug 20, 2021
Giving Hope....

By Raju Joseph | Project Leader

Giving Hope….

There are quite a number persons living with HIV in the working villages of SPPD. And the suffering of the children of the parents living with HIV is extremely miserable. Hence, taking their pathetic plight in to account SPPD has involved in the intervention of providing nutritional food supplements and other activities to towards the healthy survival and development of the children living with HIV here in the villages. This program could be carried out with the noble support of the Give India.

The nutritional kit comprised of the following items of lentils, pulses and other vitamin rich items.

The distribution of this nutritional supplement kit goes a long way in helping the children living with HIV here to cope up with the demands of the ART therapy that the persons living with HIV have to undergo for their very survival. Nutritional food is very much necessary to maintain a good immunity levels and thus their CD4 count in balance. This apart, at the time of their receiving the nutritional kit, the children and their parents received counseling on various aspects about maintaining their health in fighting the condition caused by the HIV infection.

Surya

Surya (name changed) is 13 years old and is living with HIV as he got infected from the dreaded disorder from his mother. His mother had passed years ago and his elder sister also had died when she was four years old due to HIV infection that she contracted from her mother.

Surya’s father had abandoned the family when he was hardly two years old and he has been living in the care of his maternal grandfather. His grandfather is partially disabled with a limping leg has been taking care of Surya with the small income he makes. Though his grandson carries the social stigma of being HIV positive and his own partial disability he has been trying his best to take care of Rajendran.

Surya’s grandmother is sickly and cannot contribute to the family’s expense. With the corona pandemic further damaging the livelihood, his grandfather has been struggling hard. With Surya being under ART (Antiretroviral Therapy), his health has been deteriorating with weight loss and decrease in CD count due to malnutrition during these times. CD count is a vital health parameter to be maintained for persons living with HIV.

Under these circumstances, the groceries kit given by Give India has proved to be a panacea for the entire family especially for the health of Rajendran. His grandfather while thanking the sponsors of Give India and SPPD says the variety of dry food items of the kit and the substantial quantity has enabled him to bolster the health of Surya.

Tamilarasan

Tamilarasan (name changed) and his three children two daughters and a son live in the village of Trichirapalli district. All the four of in the family have been living with HIV. Tamilarasan’s wife had died out of AIDS more than a decade ago.

Since then, Tamilarasan has been taking care of the children who all have been under ART therapy, despite his own weak health condition caused by the HIV infection. Now though his two daughters have grown up and trying to earn their own livelihood by taking up work as tailoring assistants the Covid pandemic situation has left them in dire straits as such jobs have become scarce. Tamilarasan’s son the youngest in the family is undergoing ITI (vocational skill course).

All the four in the family have to mandatorily undergo the ART medicine for survival and this in turn requires good nutritional supplements. And during the pre-corona times though minimal, the contributions from the two daughters was helping them to meet this need to a great extent. But with that income having been greatly reduced the family was finding it extremely difficult.

In such a situation according to Tamilarasan the groceries kit they have received from Give India will go a long way in helping all the four members to keep their immunity and to increase the CD count of all of them.

He further says this groceries kit comprising of rice, wheat, lentils, oil and other rations would help to meet the nutritional needs of the family for a period of at least two months till the girls start again to earn. All of them express their gratitude to all in the Give India and SPPD for this great help in these struggling times.

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSPPDVideos

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Apr 26, 2021
Children living with HIV ensured with immunity

By Raju Joseph | Project Leader

It is well known the year of 2020-21 happened to be an unprecedented and unfortunate year as Covid 19 has impacted all sectors of the society throughout the world. The local communities belonging to our areas especially the marginalized sections like daily wagers, migrant laborers and small vendors had to endure enormous pain economically as their livelihoods have been badly affected. In such circumstances, our target communities of children living with HIV and the children of those living with HIV have also have been facing impacts of the pandemic times.

In these conditions, SPPD has been extending help by generating awareness among the children as well as the adults who live with HIV on the importance of following the preventive measures against the transmission of the corona virus. This apart during the year, fortunately the children living with HIV and the children of those living with HIV in our working areas could be extended help through contributions that we have received from the online charity portal Give India.

These children have been receiving nutritious supplement kits every month comprising of three types of cereals, pulses, dates, the health drink of Horlicks and packets of nutritious mix required for a month. The nutritional supplement goes a long way in keeping these children with serious health conditios and vulnerability, relatively healthier physically. This apart as assembly of people are risky due to pandemic situation as social distancing has to be followed, the parents and the children living with HIV are being counseled over phone on the matters concerning their physical and mental well being. Periodic calls are made by the team members of SPPD as part of counseling measures. Now the aggressive spread of the virus in the second wave since early March this year has been threatening the victims of HIV like all others among the local communities here.

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