Manisha: Overcoming the Odds through HIV Prevention, Care and Support

Manisha, 17, lives in Vijayawada India. When she was a young child she attended school and had big dreams for her future, like other children her age. Her father was a truck driver and her mother a housewife. Then when she was 12 years old her only brother, 10 year old Kashi, had an appendectomy. After the surgery, his wounds would not heal and they learned he was HIV-positive. Manisha and her parents were tested and she was the only HIV-negative member in the family.

In the years that followed, Kashi was frequently ill and Manisha had difficulty concentrating on her schoolwork. She also faced pressure from her parents to drop out of school and support the family since they could not afford the cost of her school supplies. Her future looked dim.

HHD in partnership with a local non-governmental organization in India, Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM), has been working in communities, like Vijayawada, with a high prevalence of HIV. The focus has been providing HIV prevention, care, and support, especially to the large number of children affected by AIDs and the growing number of youth who end up living on the streets, in part, due to the impact of HIV and AIDS on their families. The city of Vijayawadda alone has 100,000 youth living on the streets.

Support is provided to these children and their families in an integrated way. Scholarships pay for school fees, books, uniforms and school bags so that children don’t have to drop out of school. Vocational training targets young people living on the streets so they can learn skills and break the cycle of poverty. Peer education training for impoverished children gives them knowledge and strategies to prevent HIV and AIDS, and also provides a way to reach other youth at risk. Home-based care for parents living with HIV and AIDS offers families assistance and is also a mechanism for making sure children continue their education and have basic knowledge about health and hygiene.

Manisha’s family received counseling and financial assistance for her education. Manisha studied hard, eventually completing her 9th and 10th grades with distinction. After she finished school, she joined VMM’s Health Workers Training and successfully completed the 18-month course. Manish is now an outreach worker, monitoring the education of children living with HIV and AIDS, and providing counseling support to children and their caregivers.

Manisha embodies the positive spill-over effects of this project. Not only did she complete her education, Manisha has used it to help other people in her situation. She is also mobilizing others to participate in the fight against HIV and AIDS. In fact, Manisha convinced her HIV-positive mother to speak to women and communities about what it’s like living with HIV in an effort to reduce the discrimination and stigma associated with the disease.

In 2007, more than 1,300 children in India received scholarships through this project and more than 600 received vocational or other non-formal training.