VIETNAMESE CHILDREN CONFRONTING HIV/AIDS
On a narrow busy lane in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is a three-story apartment building. For an outsider, it looks like a typical shop/house building, but inside this simple but neat building, we met more than 40 children, aged four months to 15 years - most of them orphans living under the loving care of a few volunteers and Father John Phuong Dinh Toai. They all have been neglected by society and by their own families and they all have one thing in common -- they are all infected with HIV/AIDS. Few mothers, also infected with this deadly virus and abandoned by their husbands, live here as well and help take care of the children.
Last year, 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV, and 2 million died from AIDS. Today, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 33 million people live with HIV worldwide. I was very glad to learn that at the recent 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City , the theme was a new focus on children. As reported in the New York Times, a report released at the Conference by the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS urged governments and donors to develop new approaches to alleviate the plight of children in areas hard hit by the epidemic.
There were concerns expressed by the participants that although governments and donors provide large sums of money for HIV treatment worldwide, too little of that money reach children. Very little efforts have been made to provide psychological, nutritional and other support for these children. These children have been ignored by their own families and discriminated by their friends in the school and shunned by their neighbors.
Dr. Jim Yong Kim of Harvard University , according to the New York Times, said that about 6 to 10 percent of children needing therapy were receiving it, compared with 30 percent of adults. What is really shocking is that according to a United Nations report, nearly 1.5 million children had died of AIDS in the past five years and 15 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS. An estimated 2 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV.
I am a strong believer in giving any form of support or financial aid directly to the victims and their families. For the past few years, we have made direct contact with the families or children under the care of Hope is Life Foundation.
I do not believe in overhead costs. Dr. Linda Richter, a psychologist in South Africa said that in the developing world, much of the money for children in AIDS programs went to consultants and overhead costs. “It would be more effective, and more efficient, to give money directly to families and communities. Poor people have shown that they make good decisions about getting food and other provisions. In some cases, mothers are unable to take their children for medical care because of financial barriers including being able to pay the bus fare to treatment centers.”
During the past few months, my family and I have been involved in creating awareness of human trafficking and the HIV/AIDS epidemic among children. For many young girls in Asia and Africa , poverty exposes them to sexual exploitation at a very young age. We met one young girl from Vietnam who was duped into attending a party by a friend across the border into Cambodia and then dumped in a coffee shop/brothel house. There, against her will, she worked as a sex worker throughout her adolescence years, serving men of all ages, often without the use of condoms.
It is very common to see stigma attached to the person infected as well as the entire family. People in general have a belief that they might easily contract the disease if they have any contacts with either the HIV patient or their family.
Encouraging the governments and organizations to break the silence and to combat the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, a United Nations report added, "Fear of discrimination may prevent people from seeking treatment for AIDS or from acknowledging their HIV status publicly. People with, or suspected of having, HIV may be turned away from health care services, denied housing and employment, shunned by their friends and colleagues, turned down for insurance coverage or refused entry into foreign countries. In some cases, they may be evicted from home by their families, divorced by their spouses, and suffer physical violence or even murder. The stigma attached to HIV/AIDS may extend into the next generation, placing an emotional burden on children who may also be trying to cope with the death of their parents from AIDS.”
Well, I have decided to continue to work with Father Toai on behalf of Hope is Life Foundation to provide emotional and material support for the children who are suffering from this deadly virus. Here are some of the children we are closely working with. I have changed the names to protect the character identities.
Ben has two sisters. Only Ben is infected with HIV. His mother left the two girls with Ben at the orphanage and disappeared. Upon learning that his wife and child have HIV, Ben’s dad kicked them all out of the house. These children have been living at the center since 2007.
About two years ago in 2006, the local hospital sent Vaan to the center and said she would die in two weeks time. She is infected with HIV, but doing fine. Vaan is now three years old.
Veem is four months old. The youngest in the center. Her mother died of AIDS and the father disappeared. This is very common at the center.
Bean, at the age of eight months, was abandoned by her mother on the streets. Someone took her home and found that she was infected with HIV/AIDS and left her on the streets again - abandoned for the second time. She was rescued and brought to the orphanage. She is now 20 months old.
I have taken several photographs of the children at the orphanage, but decided not to publish in this blog.
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