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this page Newsletters - The International Year of the Family
India - HIV/AIDS
There are now said to be 40 million people affected by AIDS throughout the world.
Of these, five million are found in India, where I have recently been in charge of a hospice for HIV/AIDS patients. The Hospice is situated in Tamil Nadu, South India, one of the worst affected states in India, and the need for it became clear in the early 1990s.
At first, people came to the Hospice as individuals and were often very afraid and depressed after having been diagnosed HIV-positive. They were referred through doctors, local hospitals and social workers. Others just turned up seeking help. Gradually, after much local AIDS awareness teaching, couples began coming for help and then whole families. The programme of the Hospice originally concentrated on residential care, but soon extended to village clinics, health teaching, home care and seminars. Caring for the individual was not enough. The whole of society needed educating and the best way of making contact was to show our care and concern through giving medical care in the villages and health teaching in the schools.
The Hospice today cares for men, women and children and has facilities for families to stay together and also for the children to continue at the Hospice after the death of one or both of their parents. A number of patients come having been completely rejected by their families. It is often the middle-class, Christian family who finds it most difficult to come to terms with one of its members being HIV-positive. But there is often one member of the family who will stand by them, and this makes a tremendous difference to the patient's state of mind. Because AIDS affects the immunity of the patient, their mental state is very important. A fear of immediate death leads just to that - an early death. But a patient who, after coming to the Hospice, grasps the hope and acceptance that is offered, seems to receive new life and strength to turn and help other patients.
In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, it was assumed that everyone contracting the disease had an immoral life style. However, that is far from true. Some patients have received infected blood before having an operation. Others have been given an injection with a non-sterile needle. For such, the diagnosis of HIV-positive is a terrible shock. Sometimes, there is deep anger, resentment and bitterness. This happens especially where there is an arranged marriage, and it is discovered after the ceremony that one of the couple is HIV-positive. This has a devastating effect upon both families as well as the couple themselves.
One sad example was the story of a couple who came with a small boy. His mother was desperately ill with advanced TB. She tested HIV-positive when she had gone for antenatal treatment. The couple spent every penny they had on her treatment but to no avail and she died some six months later. The father too was found to be positive and the little boy. All this came about because the mother had been previously married to a lorry driver, who had died. Being illiterate, she had no idea he had died of an AIDS-related disease and that she too was infected. So three people had become infected in total ignorance. The good news is that the father and the boy continued living at the Hospice. Both are doing well. The father works on the land surrounding the Hospice and helps to produce a good crop of vegetables. He also cares for the cows which provide the patients with fresh milk. His son goes to the local school where he is accepted lovingly and receives an education.
Much more needs to be done to encourage families to care for AIDS affected members without fear, but until that time the Arulagam Hospice (which in Tamil means the House of Grace) is able to supply encouragement, acceptance and hope to those in need.
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