A Smile restored

She is a poor HIV positive women living in a slum of Jeypore since 15 years. Husband was a driver who left the women and two children’s, a boy studying in class 2nd and a girl yet to see the world, to parish in the vast unpredicted world. Left with no financial support for the family to survive and finding no other alternative the women had to shift to her mother and stayed with her. Now that the women is no more a burden for anybody, rather she is a proud mother of two school going children and a proud daughter for an old dependable women.

It was 2004 that her husband who was treated for TB since long passed away leaving behind a sorrowful family to languish upon. Anticipating that her husband had died of TB, she became more of concern for this treatment .During the death of her husband she was in her 7^th month. The elder child was 8 yrs old and was studying in class 2. She was left with no other alternative but to shift to her mother who was very old but strong enough to take a destitute daughter into her fold. The old lady depended on the two cows she had and now the entire family of four had to depend on this two cows. Anyways they could manage to live. It was again in 2005 heaven broke upon her and the lady showed symptoms of TB. She suffered from severe cough and was treated for the same. She undertook medicine for 9 months i.e. she completed the 9 month TB course. Every month nearly Rs.400 to 500 used to be spent for her medicine which was quite painful for the family.

Finding the treatment very costly and affectless, they decided to undergo treatment at Dongaguda for free services. There she was suggested to undergo HIV test. Earth slipped from her feet when she was intimated that she was HIV positive in 2006.Then she was suggested to check up her children’s for HIV. The result was as expected. Both the children were found positive. They received free medicines but still stigma never left them.  No doubt medicines were free yet survival was a question mark for them.

A ray of hope was seen when SOVA with their livelihood support provided a cow and a calf to raise their financial position and live a humane condition of life. She was also provided service support by SOVA staffs and she enrolled herself in DLN. This small step of her has today landed her in a position where she earns a profit of Rs 200 to 300 daily. She has now tied with OMFED where she sells the milk .She has also availed the Madhubabu pension scheme. Apart from her personal daily work she even found time to create awareness among members and helped them get enrolled in DLN. The lady who once felt aloof now states that she is no longer alone; rather she is a member of a DLN family. She feels empowered .Her family is quite regular on ART and they never fail to adopt all remedial precautions.

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