Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
USIS Washington File - June 22, 2006
An alarming 90 percent of the 5.1 million people in India infected with HIV/AIDS don't know they have contracted the HIV virus that causes AIDS until a crisis occurs. So when a parent dies unexpectedly or a newborn becomes ill, HIV/AIDS is often discovered to be the cause. After that, the community frequently becomes frightened and shuns the family. Relatives will not take the children in. Schools reject them.
"The stigma is the challenge," said Dr. Pinagapany Manorama, of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), India.
Inspired by the two girls who had AIDS but nowhere to turn, Dr. Manorama created Chennai's Community Health Education Society (CHES), an organization that finds resources to house, educate and nurture shunned children. Supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CHES operates five family resource centers where people learn how to care for stricken families and where myths and misinformation about HIV/AIDS are corrected to reduce fear and slow the spread of the disease. A separate CHES shelter houses and educates 32 AIDS-affected children who have nowhere to live and no family to turn to.
Thanks to interventions by CHES, one young resident of the CHES orphanage, Murugan, won a watch for being the top student at his school -- one of the few that accepts children affected by HIV/AIDS. At a CHES community resource center, two adolescent peer counselors plan for a street performance about HIV/AIDS while a community educator meets with a self-help group. Many of the CHES staff are HIV-positive.
Dr. Manorama's desire to help the two girls continues to have a ripple effect in the community, each day helping more and more people affected by HIV/AIDS live with dignity and respect.
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