Live positive for HIV+ kids
Mid Day Mumbai (India)
May 8, 2005
At a fair held to celebrate their patron saint, Sister Shanti of St Catherine’s Home blindfolds a girl with her hands, coaxing her to pick coins out from a tub of water. A line forms behind her – some of these girls are HIV+.
There’s a risk of injuring themselves, of catching a cold from their best friends.
And yet there is no separation, no segregation in this home for AIDS orphans. “We can’t keep them in isolation,” says a mildly-shocked Sister Udaya, the home superintendent, “They have been living together all these years and are so used to it.”
It’s vastly different from the disturbing trend that has hit the headlines – of AIDS patients taking their lives to end the crushing depression brought on by its stigma, its fatal nature.
A sweeper hung himself in Mulund, two patients from the HIV+ ward at J J Hospital jumped from its fifth floor, both suicides a day apart.
Even while debates grew over the need for counselling AIDS-affected patients, St Catherine’s Home has devised its own antidote to the disease – regular doses of care and support.
This Andheri-based home was the first one for AIDS orphans in the country, for those children abandoned by relatives and friends once their parents died of the disease. Sister Shanti, a trained nurse, helped with the first HIV+ child who came in 1996.
“There was a lot of fear when we started in September 1996 because no one knew how to look after the children. Doctors said we were wasting time because they would die, but we wanted them to die with dignity,” says Sister Shanti.
The home decided it would not put the child on the anti-retroviral treatment usually prescribed for HIV+; instead the nuns devised a Care and Support Programme.
Relying on normal medicines that treat general ailments, the home chose to closely observe the infected children and treat them immediately.
For the sceptics, the home has lost only two children to the disease in ten years. It has had 48 children – the boys have been transferred as the home is for girls – and at present houses 31 HIV+ children.
The home even presented a paper on its developed method at the college of social work. Says Sister Udaya, “We rely on nutritional, emotional, psychological support and stigma reduction. It’s an all-round, holistic approach.”
The children stay in a separate hostel, equipped with kitchen, nursery and dispensary, but go to school with the rest of the home’s destitute, abandoned children.
“We have worked with the teachers, students, parents on stigma reduction. The other children are prepared – when there’s an accident and blood exposed, they know what to do. As for the HIV + child, she is told when she is able to understand.”
The HIV hostel is filled with sunshine – the dispensary lined with toys, weight charts motivate the smaller children to catch up, toothbrushes are carefully slotted against the wall and linen constantly changed. “It’s very costly – their nutrients, maintaining hygiene. They have three changes of nighties per day.”
In some cases, counselling has helped. Four-year-old Mary and Shivani came in as depressed babies, but were transformed by constant touching and hugging. One six-year-old with Hepatitis B has also recently been adopted by a Swedish single woman.
“We encourage children to keep in touch with their parents as long as they can,” says Sister Udaya. Many children fear death after seeing their parents die.
“We tell them that you will get the care that your parents never had. And at the end of the day, it’s death like any other,” points out Sister Udaya.
(By: Shradha Sukumaran)
May 8, 2005
At a fair held to celebrate their patron saint, Sister Shanti of St Catherine’s Home blindfolds a girl with her hands, coaxing her to pick coins out from a tub of water. A line forms behind her – some of these girls are HIV+.
There’s a risk of injuring themselves, of catching a cold from their best friends.
And yet there is no separation, no segregation in this home for AIDS orphans. “We can’t keep them in isolation,” says a mildly-shocked Sister Udaya, the home superintendent, “They have been living together all these years and are so used to it.”
It’s vastly different from the disturbing trend that has hit the headlines – of AIDS patients taking their lives to end the crushing depression brought on by its stigma, its fatal nature.
A sweeper hung himself in Mulund, two patients from the HIV+ ward at J J Hospital jumped from its fifth floor, both suicides a day apart.
Even while debates grew over the need for counselling AIDS-affected patients, St Catherine’s Home has devised its own antidote to the disease – regular doses of care and support.
This Andheri-based home was the first one for AIDS orphans in the country, for those children abandoned by relatives and friends once their parents died of the disease. Sister Shanti, a trained nurse, helped with the first HIV+ child who came in 1996.
“There was a lot of fear when we started in September 1996 because no one knew how to look after the children. Doctors said we were wasting time because they would die, but we wanted them to die with dignity,” says Sister Shanti.
The home decided it would not put the child on the anti-retroviral treatment usually prescribed for HIV+; instead the nuns devised a Care and Support Programme.
Relying on normal medicines that treat general ailments, the home chose to closely observe the infected children and treat them immediately.
For the sceptics, the home has lost only two children to the disease in ten years. It has had 48 children – the boys have been transferred as the home is for girls – and at present houses 31 HIV+ children.
The home even presented a paper on its developed method at the college of social work. Says Sister Udaya, “We rely on nutritional, emotional, psychological support and stigma reduction. It’s an all-round, holistic approach.”
The children stay in a separate hostel, equipped with kitchen, nursery and dispensary, but go to school with the rest of the home’s destitute, abandoned children.
“We have worked with the teachers, students, parents on stigma reduction. The other children are prepared – when there’s an accident and blood exposed, they know what to do. As for the HIV + child, she is told when she is able to understand.”
The HIV hostel is filled with sunshine – the dispensary lined with toys, weight charts motivate the smaller children to catch up, toothbrushes are carefully slotted against the wall and linen constantly changed. “It’s very costly – their nutrients, maintaining hygiene. They have three changes of nighties per day.”
In some cases, counselling has helped. Four-year-old Mary and Shivani came in as depressed babies, but were transformed by constant touching and hugging. One six-year-old with Hepatitis B has also recently been adopted by a Swedish single woman.
“We encourage children to keep in touch with their parents as long as they can,” says Sister Udaya. Many children fear death after seeing their parents die.
“We tell them that you will get the care that your parents never had. And at the end of the day, it’s death like any other,” points out Sister Udaya.
(By: Shradha Sukumaran)
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 11:28 am
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