Second chance for Timur with a new mumTimur* is a nice and playful one year old boy with curly hair and bright blue eyes. He was perinatally exposed to HIV-infection, and was abandoned by his mum directly after birth. Now he lives together with other kids who were born to an HIV-positive mother in a specialized group attached to an ordinary infant home in Orenburg. Shortly Timur will start a new stage in his young life. His fosters parents will be his uncle and aunt, the sister of his biological mum Anna. Anna abandoned her child because she was not capable of taking care of children. She gave birth to twins, but left the maternity house without the babies. Anna went to her sister to ask for financial support for the baby’s. As soon as the sister found out about the truth, she contacted the infant home. Together with her husband she and adopted both infants. The twins are not HIV positive, and live now in a normal complete family. Shortly Timur will join his two elder brothers. The one year old boy is too young to be tested for HIV, and his final status will be clear only when he gets older. Nelly Kolesnikova, director of the infant home, firmly underlines that there is no direct connection between HIV and abandoning a child. “It has mainly and primarily to do with the social circumstances of the mother.” Several years ago people were extremely afraid of children who were perinatally exposed to HIV. “I was told by acquaintances that if I started working with those children, I would bring the disease home.” Initially the care-providers in the infant home worried if they can kiss the children or hug them. The director says that now there is even a queue to work with children born to HIV positive mothers. While the attitude of care-providers towards HIV has changed for the better, many outsiders still fear for the virus. Kolesninkova often meets possible future foster parents who look for a infant younger than three years old. “The first question they always ask is if a child has HIV, syphilis or hepatitis A, B, or C”, says the director, “And the second - how many teeth a child has.” * The names of children were changed to protect their anonymity
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