Sangita Khadka
Kathmandu
PURNIMA (name changed) has a message for HIV positive women.“Learn to demand your rights,” she says, “Do not let yourself
become a victim of society with its misconceptions that HIV positive
women are bad. You can be a change agent if you have a strong
will to live and save others.”
Neat rooms with beds for thirteen, a small kitchen, a cosy dining
room and a spacious complex to give privacy to crisis patients – this
has become Purnima’s work which she enjoys immensely.
Recalling her trauma of being infected by her own husband and
undergoing a series of humiliations from her family and society,
Purnima had to take shelter in a rehabilitation home in Kathmandu. “When my husband and me
started falling sick we discovered
that both of us were HIV
positive. My in-laws doubted
me instead of their son. My
husband did not even bother
to find me when I left my
house in search of support.”
Purnima was lucky to find
other women in the rehabilitation
centre who had the same
desire – to live. Together they
formed a small support group
to start supporting other HIV
positive women. Life was not
easy.
Women were in desperate need of help but would not come out in the open. This small support group tried to do everything possible and finally, in May 2004, registered themselves as an NGO called Sneh Samaj. To date, Sneh Samaj has given support to 280 women which includes counselling at home and in the centre, facilitating medical checkups for HIV positive women and providing emergency crisis services to women. They have a network to bring in HIV positive women from remote areas who often lose their chance of survival either due to ignorance or because they choose to remain hidden because of stigma and discrimination. Purnima confirms that most cases she has received are women who got HIV because they were trafficked or the virus was transmitted through their husbands. The NGO has received support from UNDP Management Support, National HIV/AIDS Programme, DFID and Family Health International/ USAID. Besides the capital Kathmandu, it has branches in other parts of the country such as Makawanpur, Pokhara, Chitwan, Accham and Butwal.
For future expansion of her noble work, Purnima would like HIV positive women to be provided with some kind of training for developing income generating skills or even computer training. She wants to focus on those most in need of assistance – women who have children.“We need enough funds to reach all the needy women”, she says. Purnima may be HIV positive herself but now her dreams are set, her vision is clear and she hopes that the world for HIV positive women will become better with understanding, care and support from society.
Contact: Sangita Khadka, UNDP Nepal Development Communications Officer, 00-77-1-5523200/1077
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