By Jan-Peter Kelder | Resource development manager
We’d like to introduce you to the Lhekyang family, consisting of grandmother Plaa and her 15 year old granddaughter View. View’s parents died because of HIV when View was very young, so grandmother Plaa has always taken care of View. Until a couple months ago, when something went really wrong.
View is HIV-positive, just as her parents were. She used to be quite open about this and shared it with her classmates. They didn’t react in a positive way: they started bullying View en hence she started feeling more and more insecure. At one point she couldn’t take it any more and decided to start all over again at another school. At the new school she only had lessons on Sundays, so the rest of the week she could work and support her grandmother, who cannot work because she is almost completely blind. So far, so good. We were very happy with this solution, for View was still studying and she could support her grandmother, although here income was very low.
15 and pregnant
But then the relationship between grandmother Plaa and View got worse. The old grandmother didn’t quite understand her teenage granddaughter and View didn’t show a lot of respect to her grandmother either. Therefore view suddenly decided to move to a friend’s house. She still went to school by that time and regularly visited her grandmother. For a moment it seemed like the situation improved but then View found out she was pregnant. Thereafter she and her boyfriend split up and she was all alone. She also didn’t want to take her medication any longer. Which means she puts not only her own life, but also the life of her unborn child into danger.
No contact with grandmother any more
After she got pregnant View ran away from home and doesn’t want to have any contact with her grandmother any more. Grandmother Plaa worries a lot, as you will understand. Being a 15 year old pregnant and HIV-positive orphan makes View a very vulnerable girl. She might be kicked out of school as well; as soon as her teachers find out she is pregnant.
Story isn’t over yet
I would like to end this story with a nice ending. I would like to tell you that View is doing fine now and that she is living with her grandmother Plaa again. Unfortunately this is not what happened so far. This sad story isn’t over yet. Our staff still tries to convince Plaa that she should start taking her medicine again. We are the only one she still trusts and we do our very best to guide her in this difficult process. We hope she’ll move back to her grandmother. Whatever she decided, she needs financial and moral support. She’s just 15 years old and has no experience in raising a child. Thanks to your support we are able to help vulnerable children like View. Yes: she made some wrong decisions in her life but she has been very unlucky, growing up as a poor and sick orphan. Will you help us to provide View with knowledge about how to raise a child? Will you enable us to support View with some basic supplies, like food and oil to cook? She won’t be able to survive on her own.
By Jan-Peter | Communication advisor
By Jan-Peter Kelder | Projectmanager
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