Keep a Child Alive

Jay Sean Visits Sahara

On August 19, Jay Sean visited the Sahara Aalhad Care Home to see the beauty of Keep a Child Alive’s work on the ground in India. To date, KCA has helped Sahara provide nearly 2,000 people with comprehensive HIV/AIDS care services, including access to treatment, food, counseling, and residential care.

Sahara was started more than thirty years ago to help people struggling with substance abuse, and its efforts continue today to counter the debilitating stigma that surrounds both substance abuse and AIDS in India. During his visit, the Sahara team shared with Jay Sean the challenges they face working in the context of HIV/AIDS in India, and how Sahara and KCA are working together to improve the quality of life and health for the underserved HIV+ population in Pune.
 
Dr. Dharmadhikari, a physician who’s worked with the project since its inception, discussed with Jay Sean the dire situations that poor HIV+ people face in India, and the difference that the Care Home is making in the community. The increase in access to medical care and support has made an invaluable impact in the lives of Sahara’s patients, who were proud to meet Jay Sean and share their stories with him during his visit.

He met Santosh, who used to be a soldier in the Border Security Force, until he was terminated because he was HIV+. He met Girija, a patient so sick that the government hospital could no longer care for her, so she was transferred to Sahara as a last hope. He met Iyoti, who came to Sahara bedridden with tuberculosis, unable to take care of herself and her two children, and faced with the most difficult decision to give up her infant child for adoption. He met Rizwana, who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion, and lives in the Yerwada slum where Sahara does community outreach.  And he met Naveen, who was so proud to share that his daughter was born without HIV because the Sahara team made sure that his wife received the medicine she needed to prevent the transmission of HIV to her baby.  In Naveen’s words, “Jay Sean wanted to know what was happening as far as stigma and discrimination was concerned. He came across as an Indian who could easily relate to the problems of his own people. He was really happy to see people recovering and recovered, his face reflected this.”

The day ended with the young girls at Sahara dancing for Jay Sean and his team in all their Indian finery, and then Jay joined in by singing for everyone at Sahara. According to Gilbert, another patient at Sahara: “It was a great pleasure to meet such a personality, who was just so down to earth.” And in the words of Sahara’s patient Jayanta, “It was amazing to see that such a popular person is so simple and caring.”

KCA is proud to have Jay Sean as an ambassador for our work, and we need you – our donors and supporters – to act as ambassadors by spreading KCA’s message.  There are many more vulnerable people living with HIV in Pune today that still need our help.  Help KCA help Sahara and donate now.