HIV+ kids fight their own battle

Mon, Mar 31 12:40 AM

Hyderabad: Their father was the village sarpanch and as far as they could remember they always had food to eat and money to buy an occasional dress during festivals. But the two kids, 11-year-old Akash and 10-year-old Ramya, residents of Peda Dornala mandal in Prakasam district, are literally starving now.

No one wants to give them food, least of all go anywhere near their ramshackle home. As now the children are HIV-positive.

It seems the father first got infected with the HIV and passed it on to his unsuspecting wife and unborn children. Their father was the first to pass away followed by wife, leaving the children to battle HIV and its consequences on their own.

Not only the relatives have turned back, the entire village has ostracized them. They are not even allowed to use the community well.

They have little to fall back upon because all the household goods as well as properties were sold away during the illness of their parents. "I get occasional work in the fields and get paid Rs 30 per day.

On those days we buy something to eat. Most of the days I don't get work as people are scared to employ me.

On such days we remain hungry. Where is the money for medicines (anti-retrovials)?" Akash asks, stoically.

"What is the use of living like this?I wish that god should hasten our death. Actually our parents should have killed us beforesuccumbing to AIDS," he cries.

However, there could be hope for the two children. A Hyderabad-based NGO has come forward to adopt them.

"We were moved by the plight of the two HIV-affected kids. Though ours is a home for the aged, we have nonetheless decided to take them under our roof.

We will educate and rehabilitate them," said Putli Bai, President of Sangha Mitra, the NGO. The district administration has offered to send them to the home immediately.

RECOMMEND THIS STORY