Damedem Care Home
This is a Care Home for children suffering from the HIV/AIDS virus. When we first became involved with this establishment HIV sufferers were treated worse than lepers, in fact such was the fear from the general public that they could expect to be stoned and driven out of the area. Fortunately since then the HIV virus has been recognised by the Indian authorities and there are now government centres for adult men and women but sadly only two for affected children in South Goa, and this one in North Goa. There is however still a stigma and fear shown by many including some medical personnel and this is due entirely to ignorance of the facts.
Many people still believe that the virus can be transmitted airborne similar to the common cold, or by the act of shaking hands and those infected with the virus are still treated very badly. As at May 2008 we have eighteen children whose ages range from three weeks to sixteen years in the Care Home who are being cared for by Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross Order and Hazel a long term volunteer of Novi Survat. All but three of the children are orphans. The children attend academic classes at the home, partly because they would not be accepted in one of the government schools due to their condition and because they would pick up any infection that they may come into contact with which would aggravate their condition.
They have to take many medicines each day and need special diets that they would not have access to elsewhere. If these children were living in the U.K. they would have a life expectancy of 20 – 40 years but with the conditions, paucity of medicines and nutritional foods in India their life expectancy is greatly reduced.
New anti-viral drugs, free of cost were introduced in 2006, which we hope will increase both their quality of life and life expectancy. In 2007 we funded an extension to the Care Home that is used as a sick bay for the children who are ill so that they can be tended to in peace & quiet and to avoid the spread of the illness to the other children.
 |
 |
 |