HIV kills more women and children than men each year. When you have a family member or friend that has HIV/AIDS, it can be very difficult to deal with.Along with Young people, they remain the most vulnerable group and are at greater risk for HIV infection due to many factors, including lack of information, education, societal influences, and inability to access healthcare services etc… However, no matter how hard it is on you emotionally, it is much worse for them. The best thing you can do for someone with HIV/AIDS is provide emotional support.
Having an illness can be emotionally trying on anyone, but for someone who has HIV/AIDS, it can be devastating.
A mother with HIV/AIDS doesn't give up the responsibility of caring for her children easily. Often she is the sole parent, the wage earner, the provider of food, the organizer of daily life, the nurse to other sick members of the family, including her own children. Relentless demands continue to be placed on her, at a time when her own health and strength are falling away. As well as the physical drain on her energy, she carries the grief and guilt that probably won't see her healthy children through to independence.
Mothers’ don't ask for sympathy. Their need is for understanding, to be allowed to live a full and active life. To be given the support to love and care for their children, for as long as they can, without carrying the added burden of our ignorance and fear.
They look towards their children, who need to feel the same things as other children. To play, to laugh and cry, to make friends, to enjoy the ordinary experiences of childhood. To feel loved and nurtured and included by the world they live in, without the stigma that AIDS continues to attract. By listening to their needs, really listening, perhaps we can find the best way of helping these children to face their future with greater confidence and hope.
Mrs. A (Name changed), a widow with one daughter seems to be overjoyed and comfortable today after being found herself that there is a life beyond as She joined a support group for people with HIV/AIDS and started to learn how to live. . The day she tested positive was the most shocking moment that can’t be forgotten, trying to plan for her surviving daughter’s future; which won't be an easy task! At what stage should she give up her role as a parent? Who can she rely on to take care of her child? Where can she find the right kind of support to decide what is best for them? Worrying as to what will happen to her child if she dies first? Yet her biggest fear is not the disease. She has learnt to live with it, especially, as for much of the time they are feeling well! What terrify them most, are other people! For despite information about HIV/AIDS being available now for nearly decades back, she feels isolation, depression etc…... Having lived with HIV for many years and an experienced mother, her services towards infected and affected women on positive living and help access to treatment services still continues. She continues with the participation in various programmes as Positive Speaker; no matter what her life would be. Through her examples and various initiatives during the earlier days, today she is regarded as one of the experienced, sincere and honest mother which is still in the minds of many and can hear PLHIVs talk of her; acknowledging her counseling skills, outreach and her support towards the her peer friends.
This healthy mother of one; today leads the Support Net Group formed under PACT Project comprising of 12 married women members (WLHIVs). The objective of SNG is to increase coverage and access to services related to stigma and discrimination and psycho-social aspects for PLHIV. These members contribute a few amounts on monthly basis no matter whether huge or small and deposits in the Groups bank account regularly; and also do various income generating activities regularly. Apart from their livelihood activities; these members voluntarily provide psycho-social support at the community and household level and link to PLHIV with services, Reinforce messages on positive living and positive prevention, Support HIV/AIDS awareness and sensitization at the community level.
he feels so proud to be associated and have linkages with Network for Kiphire District People Living with HIV/AIDS (KpNP+) with the goal to provide the overall of quality of life of PLHIV, District AIDS Prevention and Control Unit (DAPCU), Eastern Nagaland Social Service Society, Kiphire (ENSSS) which is initiating community based activities on sustainable livelihood of PLHIVs at the community level and also IBAPWO. Her linkages with these organisations and agency for the welfare of other peers who are in needing still grow stronger day by day.
Feeling so blessed and grateful to be healthy, today she encourages and challenges women living with HIV that there is life beyond as she continues to be a role model. "I have a mission; I have a purpose in life." her philosophy on life is definitely inspiring and one to imitate. She was not discouraged from taking the steps necessary to begin the journey; a real hero is she and indeed a survival. For those mothers and children already living under the dark shadow of AIDS; anticipating her services to help them back into the light, to reassure them, to respect and support their needs. And maybe, we also learn from them, how to live our own life more fully, for however long it is.
(LITHSA)
Kiphire : Nagaland (lithsa@rediffmail.com)