Cafe Positive, buzzing with professionals, college students and young adults is run by a group of HIV positive teenagers abandoned by their families.
In a big initiative, child rights activist Dr Kallol Ghosh has started Cafe Positive, run exclusively by HIV positive staff in the bylanes of Ballygunge, Kolkata. 'Cafe Positive' is aimed to spread awareness, bust myths, superstitions and generate employment for HIV positive people. The staff consists of 7 teenagers, all of whom are HIV positive.
The cafe is also a chance for these young adults to lead a normal life and be a part of the regular society and reinstates confidence in them to venture out into the world. Kallol Ghosh, 57, aims to change the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS with his initiatives.
Cafe Positive, known for its wafting aroma of coffee and typically buzzing with professionals, college students, and young adults, is run by a group of teenagers - all of whom were abandoned by their families on learning that they were HIV positive.
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Kallol Ghosh also founded Anandaghar, an NGO which works with children affected with mental health and HIV positive people. He was inspired by a cafe in Frankfurt which was completely run by HIV positive people. Ghosh first opened the cafe in 2018 and is now expanding the business. He has plans to come up with 30 more such cafes in Eastern India and have shortlisted 800 people for the training.
How it all started
After completing his education from Ramkrishna Sarada Mission and Calcutta University, Kallol Ghosh offered his services as a National Service Volunteer in 1988 with the Ministry of Human Resources Development. He subsequently worked on a few projects with the UN, and was deputed in Nepal during that time.
He was keen on activities associated with child welfare, and engaged with UNICEF to run a student exchange programme where he roped in scholars from Oxford and Cambridge University to teach children from economically weaker sections of the society.
In 1986, Kallol Ghosh laid the foundation for OFFER and there has been no looking back. He gathered initial funds for the organisation from 10 to 15 of his friends, and decided to focus on youngsters after witnessing how they were ostracised on being detected HIV positive.
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 "Meet Kallol Ghosh")
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