HIV+ kids' experience used to counsel others

Most AIDS patients experience disease-related stigma and isolation. Almost every AIDS patient had encountered someone who was afraid to have casual contact with them because of their disease. 

Awareness about the disease is the need for the hour, and to do that, Mumbai Districts AIDS Control Society (MDACS) is taking suggestions from children affected by the disease, to make changes in the information education and communication materials used to counsel the Children Affected By AIDS (CABA).

At the age of nine, Amin Sayed* started feeling lonely because his friends made fun of him for being affected by AIDS. While Sayed did not know what HIV-AIDS meant, everybody in his neighborhood started behaving differently while he was around.

Remembering the incident that he had faced in his childhood, 18-year-old Sayed, said, "Children need to be taught about sex education, and must be aware of HIV-AIDS at the secondary school level. This will change their view towards the children affected by AIDS. Not many know about the disease or how it is transmitted."

Another HIV-infected girl studying in class IX had to change her school. The 14-year-old who does not wish to be named, said,

Just like these teenagers, there are many children who have been suffering from HIV-AIDS since childhood. MDACS took suggestions from them and "the feedback will be used for the benefit of others and help reduce discrimination and stigma around the disease in the society. Quality care is a need for CABA along with education about the topic. The children are taught about it by the time they are 12 years of age," said, additional project director of MDACS, Dr Shrikala Acharya.

RAISING AWARENESS

The feedback received from these children will be used to make changes in the information education and communication materials used to counsel the Children Affected By AIDS (CABA)