BANGALORE: There is no dearth of people who give eloquent speeches on the need for removing stigma and discrimination against people living with human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV). However, we find only a few who practise what they preach.Jyothi Kiran, a housewife, is one of the few people associated with social work to practice what they preach. For example, Kiran took the bold decision to take the help of a HIV+ woman to attend to her ailing mother-in-law. Those are the days when people used to try avoid people suffering from HIV+. “I wanted to practice what I preach. As a head of Milana, a family support network of people living with HIV, I realised the need of implementing what I believe. I discussed with my husband and informed my daughter of my decision to send a HIV+ woman to attend to my ailing mother-in-law. They became so close and my mother-in-law used to insist that only the HIV+ lady should feed her,” recalls Kiran. She even engaged HIV+ girls to receive guests during her house warming ceremony.Kiran’s tryst with HIV+ people began when she started involving herself with issues connected to development of women. She had an opportunity to start a network for people living with HIV in 2000 but it was not so easy. “I was assigned to collect around 100 families and provide counselling as a part of confidence building process among the virus-infected people. Not many people evinced interest to come to Milana office at Austin Town because of the stigma attached to HIV. After a few months, I succeeded in convincing five families,” explains Kiran with a smile.The families started visiting Milana office hesitantly to begin with but later, the number of families increased to 97 in one year. “We conducted monthly meetings and facilitated a platform for them to express their views and share problems among themselves. Later, we approached Action AID for funds. They visited our office and interacted with members of Milana. They were impressed by our work and even modified their rules to allot funds for Milana,” says Kiran with gratitude.She started counselling for individuals and later for families and extended it to communities. She also realised the importance of peer counsellors, for hey can empathise with each other’s problems. Later, she played a key role in forming Bangalore HIV Forum, a platform for people, especially communities and non-government organisations working for people living with HIV. She also started Chiguru Support Group in 2006. “Children living with HIV meet at Milana every month to discuss various issues connected to their lifestyle. Children above 11 years are eligible to become members of Chiguru Support Group,” says Kiran.Milana provides nutritious food apart from counselling and ensuring comprehensive and quality medical delivery system for people living with HIV at every Government hospitals and primary health centres.“Our aim is to launch Bangalore CABA (Children Affected By AIDS) shortly. We are organising a three-day workshop from December 11. Around 50 children, including three children each from Davangere, Mysore, Shimoga, Kolar and Ramanagaram districts are set to participate,” she signs off on a positive note.
Comments
0 comment