Bangkok Post - August 14, 2001
Onnucha Hutasingh

The fatal disease brought them together after driving their parents to an early grave. Rejected by the rest of their families and unwelcome in society, these children have found their "home away from home".

"They eat and play together. The older ones look after the younger. They never quarrel. They love each other very much," their caretaker says.

At least, they all have their happy moments to cherish before the inevitable curtain falls.

Death has taken one life after another, leaving the rest wondering why their friends left without saying goodbye.

The caretaker tells them their friends have gone to heaven.

"They are too young to know what death is. They feel good about heaven. They know heaven is full of happiness and only good people can go there," she says.

Many others are not even that lucky. Aids has made orphans of Im, 4, and Gig, 3. The sisters have some old dolls and a few small toys. Their favourite plaything is a broken plastic telephone.

"Hello, is mummy there?" "Hello, is daddy there?" Their voices echo in the empty house.

Their mother died of Aids last year. The father had abandoned them months before. Neighbours in Ban Mai, Chiang Mai's Mae Taeng district, told their grandmother, Chuay Jaree, not to let the girls near their children.

The entire neighbourhood threatened to take their children out of a village nursery if Im and Gig went there.

Grandma Chuay, 72, and her son, the girls' uncle and the family's only breadwinner with a meagre income of 120 baht a day, finally decided the only thing left was to keep the girls in his own house.

Natthapong, 9, and Pongpat, 7, cry whenever someone talks about their parents, who succumbed to Aids a few years ago.

Natthapong did not contract the disease, but his brother has.

The boys witnessed the demise of their father and mother and also attended their funerals.

Natthapong is now the man of the house, taking care of Pongpat and making sure the family has food to eat whenever his grandmother, 63, is not well enough to work in a garlic plantation where she earns 50 baht a day.

Returning from school to an empty kitchen, Natthapong goes out to catch fish or small crabs and prawns in the ricefields. His grandma says he is a good cook.

Sitting in front of his mother's picture, Natthapong says he will always remember her last words.

"She told me to look after my brother. I told her I will always love him," he said, eyes brimming.

Aids has made their lives a misery but at least they live in a friendly community. Charoen Wongsaya, headmaster of Ban Pa Ji Wangdaeng School, has made it clear to his students they must "never kick a man when he is down".

The brothers go to school as usual. Classmates never tease them or make them feel like "health hazards".

Mr Charoen has also campaigned hard to increase awareness among villagers. "The people now fully understand that they will not get infected even if they touch or eat together with Aids victims," he said.

Trying to "atone for my sin", the principal says he has to make sure everyone treats Aids-infected families with understanding. Mr Charoen admitted having acted wrongly once at his old school where, under pressure from other parents, he had asked an HIV-infected boy's father not to send his son to school.

The victim's family stopped talking to him and did not allow him to attend the student's cremation some months later. "I felt so sorry. I told myself I would not let it happen again," he said.

Ban Wiang Ping Orphanage has reported a surge in child Aids cases. In its March 2, 2001 data, 10,611 children from 17 provinces in the North and Central Region had parents who had Aids. Orphanage director Mayuree Yoktri said many girls had HIV because they had been sexually assaulted by relatives. Two girls, aged 3 and 7, were brought to the orphanage by neighbours recently. They had been sexually assaulted by their fathers, grandfathers and uncles.

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