Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Jul 4 2007 (IPS) – Having won over conservative communities in three Sri Lankan districts, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) is confident that the problem of stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) can be overcome.
There have been no great strides towards total acceptance, but social worker Swarna de Silva believes communities can be guided to accept their neighbours who are HIV positive.
We have a good rapport with all the people in the village (name withheld). We visit all of them in our support activities and don t discriminate against each other, she told IPS.
As territorial coordinator for HIV/AIDS and Anti-Human Trafficking of the Salvation Army in Sri Lanka, de Silva has many heart-rending experiences to recount, but what has moved her most is the case of a 10-year-old boy who is dying from AIDS after losing the rest of his family to the virus.
The child, she said, undergoes excruciating pain and does not know why he has been punished , lost his father, brother, little sister and, two years ago, his mother of HIV-related illnesses. Once he told me I want to drink poison and die. Why has this happened to me ?
On the positive side, the village where the boy lives with his grandmother has accepted his presence. This is unlike in the past when PLWHAs were chased away from their homes, sometimes even by their own families, and their houses torched.
According to de Silva discrimination against PLWHAs is common across South Asia where doctors and paramedical staff routinely refuse to treat them out of fear and social prejudice.
The Salvation Army, through a long process of visits and counselling, has guided two villages outside Colombo and a shanty town in the capital to accept PLWHA.
The village where the boy lives is a heartening example of how people have risen above the spectre of stigma and discrimination to support this family. The authorities of the school to which this boy is going showed some reluctance to let him continue. But we spoke with them and now they ve taken him into their fold, with love and care. The villagers too are supportive, she said.
One of the pleas the Salvation Army makes is that children should not be faulted for being affected by HIV/AIDS. Parents should act responsibly. If you are indulging in risky sexual behaviour, think of what it would mean to your yet unborn child, because for that little one, as it would be for themselves it could be the difference between life and death, she said.
At the end of 2006, 838 Sri Lankans were HIV positive, while an estimated 5,000 are said to be carrying the virus. Most of them have been shunned by society and their families like Namal (not his real name), who migrated to Canada despite recovering and being a productive person.
After being very sick, he recovered after treatment. He is very intelligent and computer savvy but had a problem with his family, said de Silva. This HIV positive man and dozens of others have been helped and cared for by the Salvation Army.
Stigma and discrimination and the issue of caring for AIDS orphans are to receive special focus at the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), scheduled to be held in Colombo from Aug. 19 to 23. It is one of the biggest-ever international conferences and expects to draw more than 1,000 foreign participants.
The event will see critical issues relating to the region being discussed by politicians, government officials, medical experts, academics, PLWHAs, community workers and the media.
Dr. Sujatha Samarakoon, consultant at the National STD/AIDS Control Programme, says although Sri Lanka is categorised as a country with a low prevalence of HIV infection, parent-to-child transmission has been reported in a few instances. Children are getting infected for no fault of theirs, she said.
Samarakoon, who is also a co-chair of the Local Organising Committee of the 8th ICAAP, noted that maternal deaths from AIDS often lead to a disruption of the family unit with no one around to care for the children. In some countries, she said, when the mother dies, children as young as 11 or 12 have to take on the responsibility of looking after younger siblings. These little girls, in turn, could be vulnerable to abuse leading to their being infected with HIV, she added.
The Salvation Army has taken under its wing 64 PLWHAs and their families, providing them with nutrition, looking into their health needs and giving them care.
Millions of children worldwide are losing one or both parents to AIDS and the number is expected to reach a staggering 25 million by 2010, according to estimates by the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF). Recent UNICEF data indicate that 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, with HIV/AIDS continuing to cause unprecedented suffering among children for at least the next two decades, if not longer.
