Imphal, January 13: We have World AIDS Day every December 31, we have Candlelit functions to remember the victims of AIDS and of course we also have numerous awareness campaigns stressing on the need not to victimise HIV positive patients, courtesy the active role taken up by Manipur AIDS Control Society and numerous other NGOs.

But come to think about it.

Can we really say that we have been able to wipe off the stigma attached to HIV patients? Read this tale of a two and half year old HIV positive child who was left to his own fate to die by none other than his family, but is today well looked after SASO stepped in and did what it could.

Raju (name changed) is a two and half year old kid and an orphan.

His parents fell victims to AIDS.

Raju is like any other two and a half year old kid, with innocence written all over his face and of course yearns for that parental hug.

However his immediate family members, read, his uncles and aunts think he is a different entity - reason? He is HIV positive, which he inherited from his parents.

But for the volunteers of SASO, this story may not have made it to the page of this paper.

Read on...

On November 10 last year, Raju was brought to the health clinic of SASO by two of his uncles and a Peer Educator of Integrated Women's and Child Development Centre.

The next day, two volunteers of SASO went to the house of the kid to supply some nutrition meant for HIV positive kids.

What greeted their eyes left them numb.

They found the child kept at the outhouse (Shangoi) on a wooden cot with only some straws thrown in to act as the mattress, or whatever you call it.

The SASO volunteers did the next best thing they could.

They took the child and admitted him to JN hospital for treatment.

After a month of treatment at JN hospital, SASO handed the child to Naz Foundation at Delhi where he is being looked after.

Volunteers at SASO said that though they are engaged in providing treatment and support to HIV infected people, they do not have the provisions to house orphans of AIDS victims.

That is the reason why the child was handed over to Naz Foundation.

Two women and two men volunteers of SASO looked after the child during his one month treatment at JN hospital, said the volunteers.

Members of the Manipur Network of Positive People also chipped in with whatever they could during the treatment of the child at the hospital, said SASO.

The question of where or to whom the child should be handed over began to weigh heavily on SASO, they said.

They approached Sneha Bhawan and the Gauhati based Catholic Relief Service Mother Teresa Home and the Orphan Home at Mantripukhri, but their approach was turned down on the ground that the child was too young and these centres do not have the provisions to admit the child.

However providence decreed otherwise and the consultant of Family Health International, Mukta Sharma came to Imphal on a two day visit in December last year.

The story of the child was narrated to Sharma, said SASO.

Another personality, Ashok Alexander who also came to Imphal in connection with the commencement of the Orchid Project under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was also informed of the situation.

The two promised to help to the best of their capacities, said SASO and true to their words, message came that the child may be admitted to Naz Foundation.

The child was then taken to Delhi on December 11 by two volunteers of SASO.

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