Families adopt children with HIV in Banglore

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Families adopt children with HIV

Times of India By Sakina Yusuf Khan (June 18, 2001)

BANGALORE: Three-year-old Naresh is thrilled. Apart from doting

parents, he now has a 12-year-old aka (elder sister) to look after

him whenever he's sick. And the last time little Githa visited her

friends at the Freedom Foundation, she came loaded with gifts for

each of them.

At last there's some good news on the AIDS front. No, not a cure for

the disease, but takers for HIV positive children. In the last one

year, Freedom Foundation, a Bangalore-based NGO, has been able to

find adopted homes for six children living with the deadly virus.

What's more, many more at the foundation are waiting to join their

ranks.

Couples who've come forward to adopt these three to seven-year-olds

belong to different backgrounds - from a rich business family in

Rajasthan to a small plantation owner in Chikmangalur, from a

software professional in Maharashtra to a public sector executive,

from a chartered accountant in Bangalore to lower middle class couple

in Udipi. Not all of them are childless. Three have children of their

own but chose to adopt a HIV positive child because they felt

strongly about it.

``It is a quiet breakthrough in a society where there's so much

stigma attached to AIDS and HIV patients,'' says Ashok Rau, founder

trustee of the foundation. It's not been easy. ``Motivating them to

adopt a sick child when they could very well get a healthy one needs

a lot of convincing. We got in touch through adoption agencies and

advocacy groups and have been working closely with these couples. I

can tell you, it hasn't been a smooth ride. Just yesterday, we got a

call informing us that the child in Udupi is very unwell. Immediately

a doctor from the organisation had to be rushed there,'' says Rau.

As part of the agreement, a representative of the organisation visits

the child every month to make sure he's doing well in his new home.

Once in two months, the adopted parents bring the child for a weekend

reintegration with the foundation and medical checkups, if required.

The foundation provides residential care to 14 HIV positive children

ranging from 18 months to 14 years. Most of the children living here

lost their parents to AIDS.

But there are problems along the way. The parents are faced with the

ethical dilemma of having to live with a lie. For obvious reasons,

they cannot tell their friends, relatives and neighbours that the

child is HIV positive. At the same time, they have to ensure that

those coming in contact with the little one do not unknowingly

contract the virus.

``Bringing up a HIV positive child drains your energy and resources.

He needs constant care and looking after. You invest so much

emotionally in the child but have to be prepared for the worst. That

requires nerves of steel,'' says a parent.

Indeed. Seven months after adopting him, little Ankit's parents were

so bogged down by his frequent illnesses that they brought him back

to Chikmangalur for good. But they missed him so much that they came

and took him back after some time.

(The names of children have been changed to protect their identity.)

http://www.timesofindia.com/today/18hlth1.htm