Keep a Child Alive

Reflections on India

Oh Mother India…we are with you…

How does one describe the experience of being in India? After many years of traveling there I have still not managed to find words that fully describe the wonder, the pain, the exuberance, the innocence, the explosion of life that is India. But there in the eyes of its people lies thousands of years past and also a glossy digital future.

India is very advanced these days compared with when I first stepped foot there in 1982. Something about it has captured my heart more than any other place on earth. It really feels like home to me. Though India is on the way to becoming a major superpower, so much of its identity is steeped in the past and that mentality is where we find most of the tragedy of AIDS.

For women, India can be a terrible trial. Women are the laborers lugging the bricks on their heads yet still standing elegant in those incredible sari’s which would make anyone look like a goddess. Women are often married off to complete strangers and they can suffer a lot of abuse if it all goes wrong. Mostly infected by their own husbands and then beaten up for being HIV+, they still seem to stand on higher ground, courageous as hell. Widows are also abandoned by their in laws when their husbands die. There are even instances where she is thrown on the funeral pyre by the family. Here the stigma is leading the charge and keeping India in the dark ages where HIV is concerned. What can be done? Much.

All the organizations we visited on our trip are doing amazing work but they need more support. Visiting Sahara Homes was an intense emotional experience. As many very sick and needy people who had clearly been through terrible discrimination lay in their beds recovering both physically and psychologically, we were so moved by their desire to be touched and loved and recognized.

We visited the slums in Pune and conversed with people, smiling and waving as we went. Visiting the shacks where people live juxtaposed with open sewage and huge very smelly garbage dumps where goats and dogs scavenge, these conditions should not be allowed. In a home where 9 people slept in a space 8 x 6 we wanted to weap. Young women who seemed way too young to be married talked to us about their problems and children whose growth had been stunted by HIV stared at us wide-eyed as their bodies betrayed their age. A 12 year old looking 8. A 19 year old who looks 12. Its very hard to see. Children should be given the best chance in life but who can provide it when all around are suffering and struggling?

One young woman who was raising two of her own children as well as her orphaned brother broke into tears as she described how her husband beats her. Her aged father watched, knowing he was powerless to help, the entire family dependent on the little the husband provides to the family. But in spite of all this pain there is a way to empower the poor to break free of the chains that bind them to poverty. Providing the surrounding psycho social support and a way out of the dependence on abusive family circumstances is paramount. And providing home based care and nutrition is everything. Everywhere we go, food is critical. And love and respect.

AIDS drugs are available through government centers but care for those abandoned via stigma is not. We met many left to fend for themselves after the death of parents or husbands. One child had tried to kill himself twice after his parents died of AIDS and he was left by the roadside to be abused and ridiculed. He is still only 11!!!! RNP+ had taken him into the house in Jalore that they created as a last resort for abandoned kids and he seemed finally happy and free, playing just like a normal child…but the trauma of losing his parents obviously remains in his darkest hours.

How can you help? Money. Just like anywhere else, its all about the money. Nothing can be changed without enough resources to provide all of the services that the poor need to break free. And we have seem such transformations that it makes us want to stop at nothing to provide for more.

I returned to America, turned on the TV and was again immersed in the marketing of fear and materialism that are so intricately linked in our country and I longed to be back in India where the smallest amounts can provide so much relief to a people who deserve so much better. 2010 begins a new year where we will be shouting from the mountain top about the rights of those abused and abandoned because of a virus that has been more deadly than all of this century’s wars combined, destroying in its path the will of entire communities and savagely killing millions.

In this spiritual land I am reminded that the little voice that is always inside of us, our true selves knows what is right and what is wrong. Lets help 2010 be the year we listen to those little voices instead of the marketing machine.

You know what to do now…

Mother India we weep for your poor and then we get up and kick butt for you. As Indians say “Chalo!!!!!” Right now!!!!!

Leigh Blake
Founder and President
Keep a Child Alive

A one-time $5 donation is charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Donations collected by the MGF. 4 info call 866-810-1203 or goto hMGF.org/t. Standard rates may apply. Text STOP to 90999 to cancel ; HELP to 90999 for help.

From Chennai to Pune

The next part of our Indian excursion took us from Rajasthan in northern India all the way south to Tamil Nadu. We met with our friends from the American India Foundation once more to visit CHES, an organization they support in Chennai. We found that the CHES Orphanage bears great similarity to the Chandrakal Orphanage that KCA helped construct outside Hyderabad. The modern complex is home to more than 50 HIV+ children. Following our tour of the child care center, we watched the children dance and perform skits they had learned and were excited to share with us. It was valuable for KCA to meet with such a successful orphan care project as we seek to expand our own orphan care work further into India.

The next day we flew to Pune, eager to meet Sahara House - an organization working throughout India to provide HIV/AIDS care and support, as well as drug treatment and shelter for women and children. While in Pune, we met with the lovely Elizabeth Selhore, Executive Director of Sahara House. Together, we visited the care home they run for HIV+ men, women and children, and several beneficiaries of Sahara’s community home based care program.

We began our day by visiting the Sahara care home, a safe haven for HIV+ men, women and children who have been abandoned by their friends and family, and need a temporary place to stay, rehabilitate, and get back on their feet. The short-term stays at the care home have proven difficult for the women and children especially, for whom it takes longer to reintegrate into society. The caretakers told us that often once women become well and return to their homes, they are beaten and turned away, and come back to the care home for further rehabilitation. Sahara wants to build a shelter for HIV+ women and children in Pune, where they can stay long-term, and not only rehabilitate, but learn new skills they may need to support themselves and live their own lives.

After visiting the clients in the care home, we met with the caretakers, many of whom are HIV+ and were once clients of the Sahara program. They explained to us that stigma continues to be debilitating to the progress of HIV/AIDS work in India. One of their most pressing challenges is to acquire proper medical attention and care for their clients at the hospitals, because doctors and nurses look the other way as soon as they learn the patient is HIV+, and the caretakers have to fight for their clients to be seen to and treated well.

Another urgent need that Sahara expressed is funding for nutrition to feed their clients in the care home and the community home based care program. People living with HIV cannot take anti-retroviral medication without proper nutrition, which is why KCA provides nutrition for many of the sites we already support in Africa. The Sahara team took us to meet Anita, who manages the community home based care program in one of Pune’s slums. The Sahara program used to provide daily nutrition to their clients living in these slums, but lack of funding has limited what Sahara can continue to provide to these clients today.

As we walked through the slum, people recognized us as foreigners and surrounded us left and right – to say hello, to get a picture taken, to ask for money. It is absolutely horrific to see the incredibly dire state that human beings allow other people to live. This is poverty. We met one woman, a Sahara beneficiary, who was 20 years old and HIV+. In a small, dark room, no more than 6 feet by 8 feet wide, she lives with her 12 year old brother, who is also HIV+, her own three children, her grandfather, and her alcoholic husband. There is no room for a bed – they all sleep on the floor, and in the morning she can only afford to give the children tea for breakfast.

We met a second family, also a beneficiary of Sahara, who lives in the same size room with her three daughters, her parents and her deceased husband’s parents. There is not enough room for everyone to sleep in the one room, so the grandparents sleep outside on a cart. One of her daughters, age 18, was recently married, but had run away from her husband because he was beating her.

These two stories are a window into the lives of so many poor people living in India today. Sahara House is doing great work to support as many people affected by HIV/AIDS and living in such devastating circumstances, but the need continues to overwhelm the programs, services and resources available. Our hope at Keep a Child Alive is to make it possible for programs like Sahara House to provide the quality HIV care that many more people in India desperately need.

You can help KCA help Sahara House and the people they serve. Give $5. Text “ALIVE” to 90999.

A one-time $5 donation is charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Donations collected by the MGF. 4 info call 866-810-1203 or goto hMGF.org/t. Standard rates may apply. Text STOP to 90999 to cancel ; HELP to 90999 for help.

Our Visit to Aanchal Care Home

After an intense first three days in Jaipur, we traveled to Jodhpur to visit the RNP+ orphan care home in Jalore. Jalore is a very rural town about a 2 ½ hour drive from Jodhpur. It was so interesting to experience the differences between the towns of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jalore, each with its unique sights, smells, and spirit.

Naren from RNP+ met us at our hotel and took us to a local shop to purchase toys for all the children. Then we drove out to Jalore on a dusty single lane road, during which we learned a lot about rural road etiquette from our driver, who maneuvered in and out and around vehicles driving in either direction! On our way we passed through a number of small villages, even stopping at one point to share a cup of chai tea. During the drive we were witness to just how little people live on in these rural areas – they really have nothing. Just imagine living with nothing – this is the reality of the impoverished world, and we, who have something, need to be doing something about it.

And RNP+ is. They have identified 30 children from Jalore and the surrounding rural area in the direst need of a home. Many of these children were abandoned by their families and forced to fend for themselves in rural Jalore, without the medicine they need to live, or the love and care of a family that every child deserves. At the Aanchal Care Home by RNP+, these children are a part of a new family that provides them with shelter, food, access to education and medicine, and above all, love. The name aanchal refers to the piece of cloth that a mother hangs over her shoulder to cradle her baby, and the Aanchal Care Home offers safety and protection to orphaned and vulnerable children in Jalore.

The Aanchal Care Home is located on a large plot of land where the children have lots of space outside to run and play. When we arrived, Brijesh from RNP+ greeted us and introduced us to the lovely caretakers who were outside rolling chapatti. Upon entering the care home, there is a small hall with one room on the left where the girls sleep, and on one room on the right that serves as both a storage space and an office. At the end of the hall is a large room for the boys to sleep, but during the day, the beds are rolled up and put away so the room can also be used for learning or play. There sat 30 children in perfect rows, quietly anticipating our visit. Their curious faces followed us as we entered the room, and when we greeted them with warm smiles and waves, they began to glow with excitement.

We sat and the children welcomed us with marigold garlands, a traditional blessing in India. Then they each came up to us with big smiles and hugs and laid small flowers at our feet as a sign of respect. After the welcome ceremony, we all danced together. We gave them the toys we brought, which they were overjoyed to receive, and then several of the children shared their stories of how they came to the Aanchal Care Home. It was heartbreaking to hear the devastating circumstances that these children have faced. One child in particular was very very sick. He was 19 years old, but had the frame of an eight-year-old. He desperately needs second line ARVs, which the Indian government only currently provides to a limited number of clinics. Naren told us that RNP+ would be taking the boy to a clinic outside of Rajasthan the next day to get the medicine he needs.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with all the children outside. Despite their difficult pasts, they laughed and played with joy as all children should, and we left determined to do everything we can with RNP+ to ensure that these children have a joyous future.

Help KCA & RNP+ continue to care for these beautiful children. Give $5 Text “ALIVE” to 90999.

A one-time $5 donation is charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Donations collected by the MGF. 4 info call 866-810-1203 or goto hMGF.org/t. Standard rates may apply. Text STOP to 90999 to cancel ; HELP to 90999 for help.

Our Day with RNP+

It’s been a busy week for us in India and we are excited to share with you more about our journey. We are glad to finally have the Internet access to update you now!

The second organization we visited in Jaipur was RNP+, the Rajasthan Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. RNP+ is an organization that aims to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS in Rajasthan, to provide a sense of belongingness among them and their families for full and active participation in society, as well as reduce further HIV transmission. Their HIV work in India is a model of excellence, at the core of which is driven by passion, dedication and love.

[caption id=”attachment_2258” align=”alignleft” width=”300” caption=”Brijesh welcomes Leigh to RNP+”][/caption]Leading this incredible team of people is Brijesh. There is a beautiful depth to the RNP+ team, whom, very much like KCA, operate as a family connected by the urgency of our work and the love for the people we serve.

KCA is going to begin working with RNP+ to support an orphan care home for HIV+ children in Jalore, and a care home for abandoned women living with HIV in Jaipur. The orphan care home in Jalore is already home to 30 HIV+ children, and with KCA’s support, RNP+ is going to expand the care home to provide for many more children in need in the area.

For the women’s care home, RNP+ intends to begin renting a building across the street from their offices in Jaipur, so the RNP+ team can help manage the facility in its early stages. The building will soon become home to 25 vulnerable women, who have been abandoned by their families because they are HIV positive. The safe-house will foster an environment where they will be safe and supported, have access to the medical treatment and care that they need, as well as educational opportunities and programs that will help them build skills they can use to sustain their daily lives.

[caption id=”attachment_2259” align=”alignright” width=”300” caption=”KCA & RNP+”][/caption]Our friends from the American India Foundation joined us at the RNP+ office to meet the team and learn more about their work. What followed were discussions on the plethora of issues surrounding HIV/AIDS in India, and informative PowerPoint presentations on how RNP+ was addressing them. We ended the day fully inspired by RNP+’s efforts, and looking forward to visiting the children in the Jalore care home.

You can help KCA support RNP+ right now. Give $5 Text “ALIVE” to 90999.

A one-time $5 donation is charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Donations collected by the MGF. 4 info call 866-810-1203 or goto hMGF.org/t. Standard rates may apply. Text STOP to 90999 to cancel ; HELP to 90999 for help.

A Glimpse at FAITH

You can help keep the FAITH children alive. Give $5 Text “ALIVE” to 90999.

A one-time $5 donation is charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. Donations collected by the MGF. 4 info call 866-810-1203 or goto hMGF.org/t. Standard rates may apply. Text STOP to 90999 to cancel ; HELP to 90999 for help.

Our Visit to FAITH

Yesterday was our first full day in India, and what an exciting day it was! We spent our day at the FAITH Care Home in Jaipur, which currently cares for 17 HIV+ children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Many of these children have remaining extended family, but for various reasons, are unable to live with them. Some of their families are just too poor to care for another child, and others have no interest in caring for them because they are HIV+. Stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS remains to be one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome in India, and consequently, thousands of vulnerable women and children fall victim to discrimination, abandonment and destitution.

The amazing Smriti Singh has taken it upon herself to care for some of the most vulnerable children in Jaipur. She provides shelter and food for these kids, and ensures that they are able to attend school. For those who still have families, her hope is to work with those families until they are willing and ready to take an HIV+ child into their home with open arms. Love is the core of the FAITH Care Home, and the children who stay there now are thriving and happy because of it.

We arrived at FAITH and were warmly greeted by all the FAITH children with gorgeous happy smiles. When you first arrive at FAITH, the first thing you see is a beautiful vegetable garden. Smriti told us that the kids help plant the vegetables, and once the vegetables are grown they will be used for the children’s meals. You enter the home into a large downstairs living space with a dining room table for the children to eat and couches to sit, rest on and watch TV. Towards the rear of the home is the kitchen and one bedroom for the older boys.

Up one flight of stairs you’ll find the bedroom for the younger boys and across the hall is the room for the girls. Next to the girls bedroom is the study terrace, where all their school backpacks are lined up neatly on a bench. The children were eager to show us their school papers and the high marks they are receiving. The FAITH Care Home is smartly located around the corner from the school that all the children attend. The younger children were home from school today because they did not have to write exams, and the older children were finishing school at half a day. Around lunchtime, we walked with Smriti and the younger children to pick the older children up from school.

Our friends from the American India Foundation came to visit us at the FAITH Care Home shortly after. KCA had the pleasure of meeting the American India Foundation at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting, where we presented our Commitment to expand our work further into India. We intend to collaborate knowledge and resources with AIF to begin supporting safe-house projects for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in India, so it was very exciting that they were able to visit FAITH and see the important work that Smriti and her team are doing to help these beautiful children.

The afternoon was spent playing with the FAITH children, eating lunch and dancing. Smriti has organized volunteers who come to the FAITH Care Home every day to teach the children Indian dance, which is instilling great self-confidence. In another week or so, the children will perform the dances they’ve learned at a local community New Year’s celebration. We will no longer be in Jaipur for this performance, and were lucky enough to see the children perform it for us during our visit. Even the shyest children came out of their shells to show us what they had learned. The dance was amazing, and it was wonderful to see how proud all the children were to perform for us!

We are thrilled to begin working with Smriti, who takes such wonderful care of the children at FAITH. And with your continued support for Keep a Child Alive, we will be able to help the FAITH Care Home grow to support many more children in need. You can begin helping right now by texting the word “ALIVE” to 90999. For our friends in the U.K., text “ALIVE” to 82540. And for all of our supporters around the world, click here to donate to KCA now: http://bit.ly/xLLCW

On our return from FAITH, we rode a tuk-tuk through the Pink City of Jaipur. Bikes, buses and rickshaws drive in every direction on the roads here, alongside camels, cows and elephants. We passed everything from beautifully built government offices to stunning temples, to modern clothing shops and posh hotels, to hole-in-the-wall bars and shanty-towns. After such an exciting first day, we can’t wait to see what these next two weeks have in store! Stay tuned for more updates!

Namaste from Leigh

En route to India!

We’ve just boarded the plane! For the next 20 hours, we’ll be in the air en route to India. Our first stop is Jaipur, and we can’t wait to fill you in on all that we experience!