PFM and HIV -- An Update

India, with an estimated 2.4 million people living with HIV (as of January 1, 2012), is home to the world's third-largest population suffering from the condition (after South Africa and Nigeria). In India, when a parent contracts HIV, children are often forced to provide for the family by working or begging. When a parent dies, his or her children may be left with no one to care for them. 

Through Project Food & More, Operation Shanti provides support to  those affected by HIV in a couple of ways. PFM provides a monthly care package to destitute HIV+ children who have lost one or both parents and who are now living with a poor relative (usually a grandmother or aunt) who must feed another mouth. Today, the care package is valued at about $20, of which 56 HIV+ children benefit.

PFM also supports destitute women who have been abandoned by their families for being HIV+ with a monthly care package and assistance for medical expenses. This month, Saraswati (name has been changed to protect her privacy) was admitted to the HIV clinic, emaciated and nearly unconscious. Although medical care for HIV+ patients has improved significantly over the years, she was not given the second-line ART medication when she needed it last year after her CD4 count declined, and she subsequently fell very ill. Mom is now in the ICU ward at the clinic, literally fighting for her life. We are assisting her two children, aged 16 and 18, with the medical bills and some difficult-to-obtain ART medication. 

Saraswati's two teenage children have stopped attending school to care for mom -- one stays with mom at the hospital and the other works to earn some money for food and other basics. They have no other family available to help them. 

Your donation to Operation Shanti's PFM program will help us continue to assist women like Saraswati and children who continue to experience stigma and abandonment by their families. On this auspicious day in India, Maha Shivaratri, we hope and pray for Saraswati's recovery.

For more on PFM, please see http://operationshanti.org/project_food.html.

Two New Kids -- Project Food and More

Project Food and More, our effort to assist children orphaned by HIV/AIDS with monthly care packages, added two new kids to the program (names have been changed for privacy reasons).

Dilip

Dilip, age 9, lives with his mom and grandmother in a two-room house in a slum area of Mysore. His dad, who was a truck driver, committed suicide a few months ago by drinking poison. Mom is quite distraught as she can barely support herself and her son, and she must now travel to Bangalore once a month to get Dilip's HIV medication -- second line therapy is only offered in Bangalore. 

Dilip is a very cute little boy, looks more like he's 6 years old, and sure does like to play with his friends in his neighborhood. 

Pooja

Pooja is a sweet 13-year-old girl studying in 8th grade in a slum area of Mysore. Her mother used to work as a housekeeper but cannot work now because of her health issues. Pooja and mom live in a tiny two-room rented house with her uncle, his wife, and their two children. Pooja's dad died five years ago from HIV. 

If you'd like to help Dilip and Pooja with monthly care packages, you can do so with a $25 (Rs.1200) donation at: Project Food and More Donation. Thank you!

Project Food and More now supports women

Project Food and More, our effort to assist children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, now supports women with HIV who have been abandoned by their families. These women are often thrown out of their houses and/or after their husbands have died (from causes related to HIV), their in-laws with whom they lived refuse to help them and their children.

We currently have three such women in our program, and we endeavor to assist many more who are poor and struggle with the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

Prasad's house

Four children were recently added to our Project Food and More program, which helps children orphaned by HIV/AIDS on a monthly basis. This brings the number of kids we help through this program to 51.

The first of the four, Prasad (names have been changed to protect their privacy), lives with his aunt in a village right outside of Mysore. His dad died in 2002, and his mom is too ill to take care of him and has been moved to a terminal care facility near the city. Prasad's aunt struggles to earn a living for her son, her husband (who suffered from a stroke three years ago) and Prasad.

The second child is Siddraju, who lives with his uncle in a village outside of Mysore. Siddraju's mom and dad both died in 2009 and his uncle earns about 2000 rupees a month, which is supposed to support the seven people in the household.

Ragu and Rashmi live with their aunt in a single room in Mysore. Their mom died in 2004 and their dad died in 1999. Their aunt rolls incense sticks for a living, and their uncle is a cook but he does not work consistently.

Three more in Project Food and More

Three more deserving kids have joined our Project Food and More Program, bringing the kid count to 29. Project Food and More provides care packages to destitute children who have lost one or both parents to HIV. They and their guardians are very poor, and are referred to us by a local HIV clinic in the area.

One of the kids, a seven-year-old boy, lives with his mom in Mysore. He lost his dad a few years ago and mom cleans houses for a living, earning about 1000 rupees (about $12) a month. Another girl, 12 years old, lost her mom and dad a few years ago, and lives with her grannie. The third girl, age eight, also lives with her grannie, as she recently lost both her mom and dad to HIV.

If you'd like to help these kids, or kids like them, please read more here. For just $25 per month, you can provide healthy and nutritious food and hygienic items to these destitute kids and their caretakers.

What to bring from afar?

We are often asked by Westerners coming to visit Mysore what they could bring to our kids. Here's a list of practical and useful items that we can definitely use:

     * girl's underwear (the boys wear slightly different styles from those in the US)
     * rubber slippers, all sizes (our kids go through these like they're made of paper!)
     * pencils and pens
     * composition style notebooks
     * bath soap bars
     * laundry soap
     * big bottles of shampoo
     * small tubes of toothpaste
     * skin moisturizer

For more on what we could use, please see our website page here.

Another two for Project Food and More

We recently added two more families to Project Food and More, bringing the kid count to 26 in our relatively new program that is being quite well received.

The first family lives in the Mysore area. Mom has two girls (one positive, the other negative) and cleans pots and pans to earn her income. Sadly, dad passed away a few years ago, and mom's family has completely shunned them because of her positive status, so they are alone.

The second family lives far from Mysore, but they come to the Asha Kirana clinic each month for their checkup. Mom lost her husband a few years ago to HIV, and she works in a photo lab while her son, age 7, attends school. They rent a house for 500 rupees a month ($12), and mom earns a monthly salary of 2000 rupees (about $45).

If you'd like to help these kids, or kids like them, please read more here. For just $25 per month, you can provide healthy and nutritious food and hygienic items to these destitute kids and their caretakers.

Project Food and More

In September, to expand our reach and help more destitute children and their families in the Mysore area, we began distributing monthly "care packages" to new kids and grannies in need.

The kids we help through Project Food and More have lost either one or both parents to a debilitating illness, such as HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis, and who now live with a grannie or other relative who has taken on the added burden of feeding one or two more mouths. In addition to losing parents to disease, the kids come only from the poorest economic backgrounds, and we visit their homes to ensure that they meet our criteria. Click here to read about some of these families.

During our first month, we distributed care packages to 16 families and expect to receive additional lists of qualifying kids in the coming weeks from our friends at the local clinics.

The care packages contain food goodies (rice, lentils), bath and laundry soap, mosquito coils (to keep away mosquitoes carrying malaria), protein powder, cookies and biscuits, and some cash -- valued at about $25.00 (Rs.1,200). This amount represents about a 30% to 50% increase in our families' monthly income.

Given the dramatic increase in gasoline and food costs -- on the order of 40% in five months for basics such as rice, sugar, lentils -- and the extra hardship in caring for one or two additional kids for some of these grannies and uncles, the care packages are received with open arms.

For more on Project Food and More, for profiles on the kids that we help through this program, and for information on how you can be a "care package" financial supporter, please see our website.