As we know stigma associated.Hope brings the cure.
Here is the interview
Krishnaveni and Ravi were among the 50 sick children from an orphanage brought to the Government Hospital for Children. They were found to be AIDS patients -- which changed everything.
Till then, they had a home. That is to say, an orphanage and an ayah to take care of them. But after they were diagnosed HIV positive, the orphanage refused to take them back. And at the hospital, they were shunned by everyone, including the staff.
Krishnaveni was four-and-a-half years old then, Ravi two-and-a-half. Ravi bled from his ears continuously, there was a huge abscess on his face, and Krishnaveni had multiple abscesses all over her body. Both of them suffered from dementia.
Unable to bear their plight, Dr Manorama, a pediatric gastroenterologist, decided to shift them to her private nursing home. There, Krishnaveni behaved more like an animal, defecating and urinating all over the place; she was a highly insecure and emotionally disturbed child. Ravi was silent and withdrawn, and everybody thought he was deaf and dumb.
Dr Manorama decided to adopt the children and take care of them. But no 'normal' woman was willing to touch them. Finally, an HIV positive sex worker was employed to look after them.
Thanks to her care, both Krishnaveni and Ravi became normal in their behaviour in six months. It was then that Dr Manorama realised children afflicted with AIDS also can get better with proper care. Thus, the Community Health Education Society Ashram was born, the first home in Chennai for AIDS orphans.
In the last fifteen years, Dr Manorama had to shift the children to several houses, as they faced obstacles everywhere. But the number of children under her care grew.
Along with this stigma, her private practice as a doctor had also stopped and the clinic was abandoned, as her patients stopped coming to the clinic that treated HIV+ people and sex workers. One of her staff, who worked as a caterer, lost his work when people came to know that he volunteered to work with HIV+ people.
A lot of water has flown under the bridge in the last fifteen years. "Stigma is definitely reduced. Earlier, we were even scared to utter the word 'AIDS'; but today, there is a lot of change in the attitude of people and the society, thanks to the efforts of the Tamil Nadu government, the media and the NGOs," Dr Manorama said.
Today, her children go to government schools, play volleyball and lead almost a normal life thanks to Anti Retroviral Therapy, and above all, love and care.
I met Krishnaveni and Ravi first in early 1997 at the CHES Ashram. By then they had been cured of all external diseases. Both smiled a lot and Ravi was not silent any more. But they were very shy.
It was believed then that AIDS orphans would not live long, perhaps only till the age of 11 or 12. As I met Dr Manorama quite often, I knew both the kids were doing well, contrary to expectations.
But when I met them in 2002, I was in for a big surprise. Both Krishnaveni and Ravi had grown so big I couldn't recognise them. Thanks to the school run by Udavum Karangal, a non-governmental organisation for abandoned children, both got the opportunity to go to school. And they looked no different from normal children.
In her pink frock, Krishnaveni looked lovely, though physically, she was not as big as other 14-year-olds. But nobody could say she was afflicted with a deadly disease. It was with a twinkle in her eyes that she told me how she felt when she first went out of the four walls of the ashram to school, how she enjoyed taking a public transport bus, and how much she loved playing with other children.
Krishnaveni had started dreaming too, like any other teenager. She told me she loved dresses. Pink was her favourite colour. She wanted to be a schoolteacher when she grew up. She loved Tamil literature and she wanted to read lots of Tamil books. I enjoyed listening to her little dreams, and we chatted for a very long time that day.
When I narrated Krishnaveni's dreams, Dr. Manorama said, "When they came here, I was told they would not live beyond 12. Krishnaveni is 14 now and Ravi 11. But we haven't told them about their HIV status. Krishnaveni is a beautiful teenager. Soon, she may fall in love with a boy. I do not know how she will react when we break the news to her..."
Dr Manorama was scared to face that day. She didn't have to, for the day never came
