HIV Awareness raising in prisons and communities

It is a usual sunny Wednesday morning, when we arrive at the prison hospital. Because we want the prisoners to trust us, we make sure they see the same faces every time when we visit. Colleagues Ard and Thorung know the prisoners very well, and the prisoners know them very well. Arriving in the room where the activities will take place, prisoners are already waiting.

We start with a little ice-breaker. (what was the ice-breaker of that day?) While the group is talking about how they see their future, Thorung went for a walk to see the prisoners who are too sick to attend the activities. 

Uncle Saeng 
‘When I, Thorung, arrived at Uncle Saeng his bed, he is already trying to get up because he is looking forward to our visit. He directly starts telling me stories. He used to be a police officer, for the prevention of drugs. For several reasons, (he will not tell) he ended up dealing drugs himself. At the age of 35 he got caught and got life sentence. Because of his HIV-infection he cannot move his legs anymore. I am checking if there is any feeling in his feet by ticking on his feet. He nods. ‘I can feel them, but I just cannot move them’ he tells me. I know this is not only due to HIV but also the lack of hope he has for the future.’

Miracle
Last year uncle Saeng almost died. He was very sick and had bedsores everywhere. His last wish was to see his family. Siam Care arranged this family reunion where he could see his wife and two children. Nobody knows what exactly happened but Saeng got better. He was even able to walk a little.

It is about waiting
Saeng has to wait. After he sits two third of his time in prison he can make an appeal asking permission to go back to his wife and children. It is still a long time to go. But it is worth waiting for. We keep reminding him that. So that he will not lose hope.

(For security reasons the names used in this article are not real.)

The Christmas-season is about to start. December is always an extra difficult time for the prisoners of the prison-hospital of Bangkok. Where other people come together to eat and celebrate Christmas, the life of the prisoners ‘just’ continues. Therefore in December the Siam-Care staff brings them an extra visit to sing Christmas carols for and with the inmates, to let them know they’re not alone. We try to encourage them to not lose hope.

Life after being released
This story is about someone for whom we have always sung for in prison previous years. This year he will not be there. Prem is in fact released after more than 10 years in prison. Whether he will be happy this year with Christmas? That is highly questionable. After he was released, the contact with the Siam-Care prison-workers was diluted. Last week, he suddenly rang. Despite his freedom he got in trouble and he didn’t see an outcome anymore.

Not able to support himself
Even after being released, an ex-con can always come to Siam-Care for moral support. Two days after Prem called us, we visited him. Unfortunately he was suddenly suffering from paralysis on the left side of his body and he could hardly walk. He was in quite a lot of pain and wasn’t able to work, according to himself. In his livelihood Prem completely depended on his elderly mother, who sells fried bananas. Unfortunately, she doesn’t earn enough to cover all their expenses. All charges of Prem's medications could hardly be paid for and eating three meals a day was absolutely no option. Prem felt so depressed that he was seriously considering putting an end to his life.

Small things with big influence
What do you do when someone like Prem calls you and asks for financial support? We are more or less the only people he knows, there is no one looking after him. Basically Siam-Care never just gives money to people. We always encourage people to take care of themselves as much as possible. So we spoke with Prem and gave him moral support. Together we thought about what kind of work he could be doing to support himself. We showed him that there are enough options, even for a physically disabled person. Besides this we have made a small donation to his mother, so that she can improve her food stall and hopefully earn more money in the near future to support herself and her son. The things we did were just small things. But for Prem and his mother is meant the world. Prem regained faith in a good future. And he knows that his life is valuable, that there are people who care about him and want to inspire him to do something with his life.