HIV/AIDS

Interns' Diary II : Sanne Bakker

8 August, 2006

Our fieldwork was amazing. The first organization we visited was SEEDS, located in Guntur, a – compared to Hyderabad – small and cute town in Andhra Pradesh. We conducted our fieldwork in rural and urban areas with the help of many staff members who stayed with us in the field from 9 up to 23 o’ clock. Through FGDs and surveys we could manage quite well to get an overview on what problems orphans due to HIV/AIDS face. Many times I was touched by the stories people told us on how they are being discriminated against. Children are scolded at school and are sometimes called ‘AIDS-father-child’ by their classmates. It happens that they get beaten up even in their own house by family members because of their positive status or the fact that their parent(s) died due to AIDS. During FGDs women sometimes started crying when telling how they were discriminated against. One woman had to stay at a bus stop during the visible signs of the disease while her mother brought her food. She already shifted 5 times from one house to another because owners thought that the HIV/AIDS was transmittable by mosquitoes. I felt really bad for these people. Fortunately the awareness programmes on HIV/AIDS seem to be fruitful with regard to diminishing the stigma.
After four days we continued our fieldwork in Vijaywada. The interventions undertaken in the urban slums included grannies, women, and children support groups, awareness programmes and vocational trainings. Many interviewed people mentioned that the level of discrimination has decreased since VMM introduced its awareness programmes on HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, discrimination was also here an ongoing issue.

The fieldwork had a deep impact on me. One of the orphans I met was an infected, very skinny 8 year old orphaned boy. He is taken care of by his grandparents who cannot afford to buy him any medicines or food.
Seeing such a child makes me all the more realize that orphaned children find themselves in very difficult circumstances. Hopefully we will be able to help these children in the future.