Imphal, October 06, 2009: From stigma and discrimination to respect and self-reliance, it is a courageous and awe-inspiring journey often fraught with hardships.

Yet a group of women living with HIV/AIDS have managed this transit through their courage and undying spirit.

Having grouped themselves into three self help groups (SHGs) aptly titled "Radiance," "Unique," and "Unity and Apunba" with the help of Kripa Society, these women are presently running a tiny stall selling plaster-of-Paris gods, wool teddy bears, detergents and dishwashers amongst the many stalls selling the usual fare of kurtas, bedsheets, leather goods, toys, educational CDs, health products and food stalls of the 1st National Asian Expo being held here in BJP State Office Complex at Keishampat.

According to 43-year old Kh.

Bela, secretary of Radiance, of the 15 HIV positive women members in each of the three SHGs, most are widows.

While Radiance was formed in 2003 at Lalambung Makhong, Unique was established at Takhel Leikai in 2005.The youngest SHG unit is Unity and Apunba established in 2007 at Singjamei Bheigyabati Leikai.

The products of the SHGs vary from phaneks and muga threads to detergents, dishwashers, achars and religious urik beads.

The money they earn goes towards uplifting their financial income as well as in buying medicines.

"The Manipur Aids Control Society (MACS) give us free ART, but no medicine for opportunistic infections (OI) except for some paracetamol, cotton swabs and vaginal gels.

We are already struggling for our daily meals, from where do we manage the OI medicines?" says 36-year old H.Anita who has been on ART since 2005.Adds 32-year old Premila, "The doctors advise us � don't strain yourself, have happy thoughts, eat well.

How can we do that? We have to worry about our food, rear our children single-handedly, and work to be able to manage all that".

Premila stays at her paternal house at the moment with her single surviving four-year old child.

Her elder son died recently after a brief illness a few months back at the age of nine years.

"After my husband's death my in-laws wanted me to remain inside the house always lest others should know of my HIV positive status.

When I persisted in seeking support from related NGOs they told me to get out of the house," she narrated.

Like Premila, most of the women had to encounter such obstacles from their in-laws.

Kh.

Bela's husband died when their son had just turned five months.

"At first I was also quite bashful of going out and letting people know of my status.

My in-laws too didn't like me going out.

But after attending some of the meetings, I was quite encouraged.

So I told them � do you want to kill me like you killed my husband? You see, they probably knew his status but they hid the fact from everyone including me and denied him proper medical care." Bela has been on ART since 2007.She is also co-infected with Hepatitis C. Coming together as a group and working collectively have instilled courage in these women.

"During festivities like Rath Yatra and Krishna Janmasthami, we would just collect the items we have made and tell the seniors that we are going to sell our wares.

We had no formal stall, but we were determined to even hawk our products on the footpath.

And we did sell a lot," narrates Bela as they all giggled happily at the memory.

Friends, families and visitors to their groups form the bulk of their customers.

They also do door to door advertisement and sale of their products.

"It is very tiring to walk around in the sun, but since this is our own collective money we don't like spending it on rickshaw fares etc, so we endure," she says, adding, "Apart from the money, we feel good just working together and sharing our joys and sorrows".

This is the first time that the women have participated in a fair and they are hopeful of collecting a good sum.

Says Bobo, HRD secretary of AMADA, "Work avenues available for these women are limited due to their status and side-effects of the medicines they are taking.

Very often they stray into the wrong path of immoral activities out of compulsion.

It would be good if the state policies and NGO intervention prioritise the conditions and upliftment of HIV positive women".

The 1st National Asian Expo has been jointly organized by the National Asian Expo and social organization All Manipur Anti Drugs Association (AMADA).

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