Give Farm training to Indian HIV Families

Our farm is busy welcoming our newest additions! A recently arrived mother and child join us as we hosted a supporters parents' 60^th wedding anniversary. In a beautiful Indian tradition, which marks the witnessing of 1,000 full moons, well-wishers were asked to donate the combined weight of the married couple in gifts for Snehalaya. These included educational supplies, clothing, grains, dry foods and these two holy cows mother and child.

Enjoying their moo-ve

Like all of our beneficiaries, the bovines have quickly settled into their new home, enjoying the fresh air and rural peace at our farm. In return, they are contributing to our monthly delivery of over 1,000 litres of milk to our Rehab Centre, ensuring nutrient-filled dairy in our beneficiaries’ daily diet. We keep some of the milk at the farm for our own beneficiaries too and you can see the good it's doing for Ganesh, our miracle baby we introduced you to in our last report.

These cows really are the gift that keeps on giving! Our two dairy farmers use their manure, mixed with honey and water then dried out, to produce our totally organic fertiliser which boosts the growth of our veggies and our newest crop, ‘Hatti’ grass, which our cows happily munch on themselves. Keeping our 13 cows fed and watered is a challenge, and this new crop has prevented the fodder shortages we experienced last year. More good news is that the drought which was causing even more severe issues for our farm and throughout India over the past few years has finally broken and our reservoir has thankfully been restored to 80% capacity.

This means all of our beneficiaries can continue to reap the harvest of their work. One of them, Sunita, was found at a bus stand by the police trying to raise money to buy food and a cup of tea by selling her body. The police brought her to our women’s shelter where, after a medical check-up, she was sadly diagnosed with HIV and has since joined our farm project.

We started her on medication (ART) and as she couldn’t disclose her history and was in an unstable mental condition she is also receiving counselling. Sunita won’t talk about what took her to that bus stand, and that is ok by us. She says she is feeling better and is enjoying the theraputic qualities of working the land and helping to produce vegetables for our children.

In December, at our annual matchmaking ceremony for HIV+ couples, we’re hoping to help her in her quest for love to find a husband who she can feel loved and supported with in her life. Social exclusion in India for people living with HIV is high and being unwed is also social unaccepted so our matchmaking event is a real hit.

Thank you for all of your vital support in keeping our farm going and giving women such as Sunita an escape route from the stigma they experience as a result of their HIV status and sex work. Thanks to you they really are living healthily and happily in the family environment that is our Hamlet of Courage.

Meet three month old Ganesh (see picture below), the most recent addition to our Himmatgram Family. We were so relieved when he was born free of the HIV, his mother and former sex worker Sangeeta, had been terrified of transmitting to him during her pregnancy. This is thanks to the administration of the ART medication, nevirapine, which can be used to prevent transmission of HIV from a pregnant woman to her new child and also means she can breast feed him. As well as being healthy he is also an incredibly happy little child and always ready with a smile for our 32 beneficiaries and many, many visitors – he is easily our most popular member.

Sangeeta has another two daughters, one of whom was horrifically raped by her own father when she was just eight years old. Not only did the pregnant mother and girls find sanctuary, they also received counselling, love and attention from the family at our Hamlet of Courage. This has helped build both the girls’ confidence enough for them to move to and settle into our Rehab Center less than a year later, where they live among other beneficiaries their own age and attend our Snehalaya English Medium School. Sangeeta says:

“Just one year ago me and my family had very little to look forward to. Now, thanks to our new family at the Himmatgram, I have a happy and heathy baby and my daughters are back in full time education. Thank you for giving us a future.”

As you can tell, our Himmatgram is no ordinary farm, it truly is a family and the staff there fulfil a number of roles beyond managing the farming project. The health and wellbeing of the beneficiaries who live and work on the land is the top priority. Living with HIV/AIDS can be debilitating without the right diet and regular medication. When it was noted that some of the beneficiaries were lacking the energy or too ill to work, doctors and other experts were consulted. Regulating the timings of medication and using natural therapy to regulate sleep, exercise and diet has seen one beneficiary’s CD4 count rise phenomenally from 169 to 369, an amazing result from something as simple as starting the day right.

Having the time to focus on this kind of detail could not happen without your generous donation. Unfortunately, there has been a significant lack of rainfall in Maharashtra for the past three years, and the state-wide impact of the ensuing drought has been devastating. We are fortunate to have our own dam and use a drip irrigation system to make the most of this limited resource, however we need electricity and a well maintained pump system to deliver the water we need both for the farm and to live on. With frequent power outages and an inadequate pump needing to be fixed every 15 days or so, it was donors like you who came to our assistance to provide the materials and funds for new equipment and repairs to ensure this vital supply line.

The more we can count on your donation, the more we can provide the produce for the Rehab Center and free our project managers to concentrate on initiatives that keep all of our beneficiaries healthy and happy. Thank you!

Links:

• Himmatgram Facebook