Give a future for 950 Indian kids living with HIV

When we started work in India's southernmost district, Innayan a boy aged 8, was on the list of children who had stopped taking treatment for HIV. At first his father physically chased our volunteer away – “There is nothing wrong with him”. He even threw a stone at her, fortunately it missed. Our volunteers didn’t give up and later helped to get his mother admitted in the government hospital when she was sick. After much effort, all the family are back on treatment and Innayan looks just fine.

The project you support works with children with HIV in eight Indian Districts with a population of around 14 million of the State’s 72 million. We work through district level HIV Positive Women’s associations, one new district has been added this year.

We currently follow up 456 children (238 boys and 218 girls), they are growing up and over half are now aged between 16 and 18. Six new children have been added, only two are below 4 years of age and all have started treatment, HIV positive children are becoming a thing of the past!

There are another seven children and their guardians who refuse to even talk to us and 11 have temporarily stopped treatment. Currently 66, are irregular in collecting or taking tablets. We won’t give up on these children.

Ensuring treatment regularity is the top priority together with children who are ill, during the quarter 57 children were guided to treatment for fever, skin problems or diarrhoea. Eight were diagnosed with tuberculosis, a serious but treatable complication. 32 children have suspected treatment failure and the project ensures that the government centre changes their treatment. 80 children do not discuss their infection with their guardians and are under follow-up to correct this.

We also follow up 435 young adults for marriage counselling, and counselling regarding romantic attachments, premarital sex and safe sex.

As usual, we thank you so much for your interest and support, best wishes

John Dalton