It's a humane sign when 15 Britons help people living with HIV in city
Sumit Kumar

One helps raise funds, another teaches children English while the rest take
care of the affected in the slums

Ruth Blackburn is a bio-chemistry student, Jenny McCann is good at raising
funds while Karen Moncrieff is an English teacher different people bound by
a common thread wanting to help People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the
city.

The three girls are among 15-odd volunteers from the United Kingdom who are
in Pune to help carry out various healthcare programmes in the city. Their
experience while dealing with PLHAs has been moving.

Most of these volunteers decided on Pune by simply using Google's search
engine to check the charitable organisations in the city. They got to learn
about grassroots organisation and decide to pay their way for a stay that
varies from two weeks to a year.

Jenny, who has already been here for a month, says her interactions with the
PLHAs have been an eye-opener. The stigma and discrimination against them
have made such a deep impact that she now plans to tap corporates and local
retailers to raise funds for the HIV-affected who have been abandoned.
The fund-raising will be part of city-based Deep Griha's Integrated Service
of HIV/AIDS (DISHA) programme. In fact, the Link Overseas Exchange, a
Scottish charity that encourages young people to live and work overseas, and
DISHA have already raised £ 1,000 for the salaries of HIV counsellors at
Deep Griha Society.


Karen, who plans to stay for a year, has decided to use her skills to teach
English. ``I wanted to work with an organisation at the grassroots level and
am now teaching tiny tots at the DISHA creche. In turn, I get to learn
Marathi,'' she beams.

Others like Nadeya Zaman and Samantha Watson from Development in Action, a
UK-based group, have been in Pune for just a week, but are bonding with the
PLHAs at Tadiwala Road slums. So much so that they love to share the spicy
food with them.

Such work for the PLHAs is the need of the hour, says DISHA's project
director Hans Billimoria. ``The support of the community is crucial for the
success of the project and several volunteers from various countries have
contributed their bit,'' he adds.

While 64 persons have been identified with HIV at Tadiwala Road slums in the
DISHA project, a recent survey conducted by volunteers with the US-based
Duke University found that the levels of stigma here were very high.
HIV-affected Reema (name changed), who works at Deep Griha Society, lost her
husband and two-month-old daughter to HIV. ``I do not want to reveal my
status as I have a younger brother who may not be able to get married,'' she
says.

According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), 1.8 per cent of
the population in Pune has contracted the disease. Billimoria, however, pegs
it higher. ``Only 8-10 per cent of those infected with HIV come forward for
help for fear of discrimination and stigma,'' he says.


URL : http://www.punescoop.com/story/2006/9/25/43140/7213