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Rejectedbut Accepted

Rejectedbut Accepted

A hospice in India offers a loving home to AIDS-infected women

B Y S O N Y A S V O B O D A

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Ever since Uma’s husband had tested positive for HIV,her mother-in-law had been blaming her for it,despitethe fact that Uma herself had tested negative. But aftergiving birth to their first child, Uma watched her

health rapidly decline.After undergoing some tests, this timeshe tested positive for HIV.After taking her to a hospital, hermother-in-law left her there, separating her from her husbandand newborn daughter. During her stay there, she met someof the team members from PACT (Project AIDS through Careand Training), who invited her to live in their hospice. Shegratefully took up their offer.The hospice staff also set out deter-minedly to restore Uma’s daughter to her and were successful.

Uma’s story is not uncommon among HIV/AIDS victimsin India. But hospices which would care enough to restore adaughter to her mother are rare.When PACT opened its 10-bed hospice in May, 2000, it was the first of its kind in thesouthern city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), India.Today, although a similar hospice has since opened its doors inChennai, PACT is forced to turn patients away due to lack ofspace.The PACT hospice is known as a place where HIV/AIDSpatients are treated as people rather than medical problems.To date 80 women have passed through their care; some havedied, while others have been reunited with their families.

Through their Home Care Program, PACT has been ableto reach out beyond the walls of the hospice. Once a monththe team visits families who have one or more HIV/AIDS-infected persons in their family, providing not only a month-ly ration of rice but also counselling and education on HIV/AIDS. If necessary, the team will take the patient for a doctor’svisit, and they provide financial support for the education ofthe patient’s children.The team currently visits 100 familiesmonthly and provides 65 children with fees for school uni-forms, books, and shoes.

“There is no hope for the children if they don’t go toschool,” explains Wilson Prabhu, overseer of the hospice.“Wehave also enrolled orphans in a boarding school.They cometo us during the summer holidays,” he says with a smile onhis face, joking about how large his family has become.

The atmosphere here truly resembles a family.The womensmile with a joyfulness rooted in security. PACT has provideda home away from home for these women and a place inwhich they can live out their lives in dignity. It is a shelter awayfrom the fiery arrows of blame shot at them by society andtheir family.

Because of the depth of rejection these women have faced,

there are many issues they have to work through. “After[women stay in the hospice] about four months or so, thingsstart to come out in stages.There is a lot of anger and oftenthey want revenge,” Prabhu says, reflecting on their transition.“Ninety percent of these women are not Christians.” PACT’sstaff is committed to walking them through their issues andgiving ongoing counselling and spiritual care.

In the 1990s India’s HIV/AIDS population was in the lowthousands. Today, however, according to a U.N. report, 5.1million Indians (both adults and children) carry the virus, and38 percent of these are women. In a country where both sexand AIDS have long been taboo subjects, this devastatingdisease is fast spreading its tentacles into every level of Indian

society.Although these figures may seem low in comparisonto the figures of other countries, the rate in India is climbingat an alarming rate; India’s AIDS population will reportedlyovertake that of Africa in just 10 years. Both NGOs and thegovernment are carrying out aggressive and concentrated cam-paigns to combat the spread of this deadly disease.

In India the disease is the most rampant among men work-ing in the trucking industry and, consequently, their families.Truck drivers are often gone for a minimum of two weeks,and during this time many of them visit brothels at variouspoints.When they return home, they pass the virus on to theirwives.This behavior has played a crucial role in the spread

Above: Because children of HIV/AIDS-infected parents are welcomein very few places, PACT runs a school within the hospice.

Opposite: Uma, wearing eyeglasses, is one of 10 women who,rejected by their families, are currently living at the PACT hospice.

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of HIV/AIDS around the country, as the drivers cross hun-dreds of kilometres.A recent survey found that among menover the age of 40, a high proportion are sexually promiscuous,abuse alcohol, and have little knowledge of AIDS.

Because of the stigma attached to this disease,many of thevictims’ families shun them, leaving them to take care ofthemselves.Whether they live on the streets or hold a job,loneliness weighs on both male and female victims becauseof the rejection they receive not only from their families butalso from society at large.

But women are far more vulnerable than men when itcomes to dealing with the after-effects of the disease. It ismuch harder for them to establish a life for themselves, andthey more often than not end up living on the streets.Whena woman’s husband dies of AIDS, her in-laws will often holdher responsible for his death, the logic being that she appar-ently failed to curtail her husband’s sexual activities. Even ifshe herself remains healthy, it will be difficult for her toremain in the home after her husband’s death.But if she testspositive for HIV, she will be not be allowed to remain withthe family; nor will she return to her own family, for fear ofbringing shame upon them. Hope is hard to come by insuch a situation.

A Journey to Compassion Wilson Prabhu did not always see himself working with HIV/AIDS victims. Raised in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, hegrew up believing AIDS was a disease of the immoral andfeared that if he came into contact with them he, too, wouldcontract the disease. Sitting among his work colleagues, hewatched a video on the spread of AIDS in Africa. As hewatched children burying their parents, Prabhu prayed he

would never work in this field. However, one evening inAugust, 1996, his life took a sharp curve.

At the time, Prabhu was involved with a church-plantingteam.The team members would often walk through varioussections of the city, praying for the area as they walked. Oneday, after returning exhausted from such a walk, he lay downon his bed.With his eyes closed, he saw before him threewords flashing in neon lights: “Rejected but accepted.” Hewasn’t sure what it meant but kept it in his memory, hopingfor future clarification.Through further incidences, Prabhubecame convinced that the Lord was leading him to workamong HIV/AIDS victims—those rejected by society butaccepted by God. During six weeks of training in Bombay,he had his first contact with AIDS victims, faced and overcamehis fears about AIDS, and discovered compassion burning in his heart.

He returned to Chennai a changed man and immedi-ately began travelling around the city inquiring about NGOactivities. None offered any form of long-term care to AIDSpatients but instead had concentrated their efforts on spread-ing awareness about the disease.Prabhu eventually volunteeredhis time at a TB hospital which had opened two wards toHIV/AIDS victims to address the growing need.But there wasstill a vast shortage of beds, and many patients were turnedaway. It was while working there that Prabhu observed theacute vulnerability of female patients, and he decided to opena hospice that would cater to women and restore their dignityto them.When PACT opened in 2000, Prabhu and his team

How You Can HelpAs Wilson Prabhu says, “There is no hope for thechildren if they don’t go to school.” Providing finan-cial assistance for the victim’s family is one ofPACT’s top priorities.The majority of the peoplePACT works with are either low-income or impov-erished, so when the virus takes hold they are oftenunable to work and thus have no money for theirchildren’s school fees, uniforms, and text books. If youare interested in contributing a one-time gift or becom-ing a regular supporter, you may contact PACT atelzywilson@eth.net

Wilson Prabhu, pictured here with his son, Jose, and wife, Elizabeth, felt the Lord leading him to offer a refuge and Christ's love to women infected with HIV/AIDS.

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knew more than enough women who were eager to move in.PACT envisions expanding the original hospice from 10

to 50 beds by 2007.They recently opened a separate hospicefor children with the virus. Many of the women who came tothe hospice have children, some infected, others not. Some ofthese children are now orphans. Because of the difficulty ofenrolling these children in a regular school, PACT also runs aschool within the children’s hospice.Children of HIV/AIDS-infected parents are welcome in very few places, and theyoften live on street pavements, at bus shelters, and on railwaystation platforms.The PACT team finds out about thesechildren via word of mouth or sometimes by talking to themin the streets and inviting them to live in their hospice.

Although PACT is committed to giving long-term care tothe women, they also work to reconcile the women with theirfamilies. If the woman is open to reconciliation, the staff mem-bers will educate the family about every aspect of the diseaseand discuss any issues that arise.The reunification process cantake anywhere from six months to two years.Once the womanis reunited with her family, PACT remains in contact andcontinues talking to the family for six months to help themthrough each step of the process.They have witnessed bothsuccessful and unsuccessful efforts at reunification, but sincePACT imposes no limit on how long a woman can remain

in the hospice, she is always welcome back should efforts failto reunite her permanently with her family.

As the women residents pass away, no longer able to bat-tle their disease, Prabhu and the rest of the PACT staff havediscovered that the work they have chosen can be heart-wrenching. But they have also discovered that life goes on,and not one of them has lost the compassion that first stirredthem to extend their hand to those suffering from AIDS.They have truly followed God’s call to reach out to the needywith mercy and provide for their needs.

Uma, whose story began this article, today resides hap-pily at the PACT hospice. She recently attended a Christiandiscipleship program and has also been trained under expe-rienced schoolteachers. Today she is a teacher at PACT’sschool for HIV-positive children. n

PACT is a ministry of YWAM (Youth With A Mission).Aninternational, interdenominational mission,YWAM was found-ed in India in August 1982.YWAM Chennai is committed tomeeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of thecity’s residents through a variety of multifaceted ministries.To learn more about this organization, visit www.ywam.org.

Sonya Svoboda is a freelance writer based in Chennai, India.

of a vaccine (for further information and a publicity toolkit go to www.aidsinfo.nih.gov/other/vaccineday2004.asp)and National HIV-Testing Day (June 27),which encouragespeople at risk to receive voluntary HIV counselling andtesting (www.hivtest.org).

• Form a “He Intends Victory (HIV)” chapter with yourchurch to support outreach opportunities and promote aspiritual awakening within the HIV/AIDS community (www.heintendsvictory.com).

GET BEHIND OTHER MINISTRY EFFORTS

Identify Christian agencies and individuals that are effective-ly fighting HIV/AIDS,or ministering to sufferers, and supportthem financially. Here are just a few:• ACET—AIDS Care, Education, and Training International

—is an alliance of organizations founded by Christian doc-tor Patrick Dixon that networks to provide resources andfunding for worthwhile projects in a number of countries(www.acet-international.com).

• World Vision International’s HIV Hope Initiative focuseson prevention, care (particularly for vulnerable children),and advocacy (www.wvi.org/wvi/aids/global_aids.htm).

• Scripture Union has developed a wide range of posters,videos, booklets, and courses that are being used exten-sively in schools across Africa to fight the spread of AIDS(www.su-international.org).

VOLUNTEERYou don’t have to go to Africa to find people affected by AIDS.In some of our towns and cities you may be the only one tovisit a person whose friends and family have deserted him.Showing Christ’s love through practical help like cooking ameal, cleaning, or doing errands, coupled with a willingness topray and listen, is the best way to provide a lifeline.

Most mission agencies are glad to accept short-term vol-unteers overseas.Opportunities range from medical teams tohands-on help for children orphaned by AIDS. Act4Africainvites people to join three-week summer teams that use theperforming arts to promote HIV/AIDs awareness and extendGod’s kingdom (admin@act4africa.co.uk). Check out otheropenings at www.globalmission.org, www.volunteer.org.nz,or www.christianvocations.org.

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