The Hindu : National : Stricken but not beaten by AIDS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 27, 2006
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Stricken but not beaten by AIDS

B.V.S. Bhaskar

Two victims help awareness campaign in Churachandpur district

IMPHAL: Visual impairment and HIV has not deterred them from serving society. One is visually impaired due to HIV and other is an injected drug user with HIV positive symptoms. The visually impaired woman Shingling Kim has a daughter and son. Her daughter is HIV negative but seven-year-old son has tested positive. Both mother and son are on anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

When she came to address the Evangelical Baptist Church in Churachandpur district headquarters with volunteers of the Lamka Rehabilitation and Research Centre, supported by Orchid and Shalom, she said that her priority was to spread a message to all the citizens of the district on HIV and not her survival.

"I know that each house in this district has a drug abuser. I got infected through my husband, who died in 2001. I lost my sight during my second pregnancy, by that time I too was infected. Luckily my daughter is negative. With the support of the Church, I will continue to campaign on this disease," she said.

The tale of Chinbiak is different. His father, a priest in the church took up the fight against HIV after his first son died — the first AIDS death in Manipur. Chinbiak became an injected drug user (IDU) and he was infected with HIV during exchange of needles.

He explained how the IDU ruined families and how he was coming out of drug abuse with the help of oral substitution therapy (bruphenorphine-intoxication) by Sahara International and other NGOs.

He has launched a continuous users forum to give help through therapy and has become a peer educator.

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