When 12-year-old Vindhya was thrown out of her home for her bisexuality, she was left with no other choice than moving away, leaving three unmarried sisters back home. Following her mother’s advice, she went to KGF and stayed with her group for some time, till a second revelation hit her real hard. She was HIV positive.
Finally, she landed up in a care home which accepted many such HIV positives who were discriminated and stigmatised by the society.
Since its inception in May 2002, ACCEPT (AIDS Counselling, Care, Education and Prevention Training Society), a care home for AIDS patients at KRC Road in Doddagubbi, has been striving to bring together such isolated persons from commercial sex workers to bisexuals under one roof to infuse in them new hope, courage and confidence to cope up with the disease and face the society.
“Though we know that the disease cannot be cured completely, we try to make HIV positives happy and provide them with comfortable living conditions. This organisation is one of its kind because we also take in those who are afflicted with Tuberculosis which can be deadly,” says its Founder Chairman Raju K Matthew.
“We identify HIV positives and get them treated free of cost. We have two types of admissions - while the first one is for those who need intense medical treatment, the second one is for those who need psychological support and counselling,” says Counsellor Dr Natraj.
However, this is not a permanent rehabilitation centre and once they are admitted they are treated for a period of 20 days, by which time their relatives are called and given family therapy. “There are many such instances when parents got convinced and took them back home,” explains Dr Natraj.
Patients are given regular medical treatment along with emotional, spiritual and psychological support and counselling. Regular group classes are held to create awareness about nutrition, proper intake of medicines, methods to control the disease and strategies to cope with the society.
The wards here also carry names such as Joy and Peace, making patients feel the need to live.
ACCEPT also has a children’s home where 15 HIV positive children are given free treatment and education. These are children who are either born out of HIV positive parents and so abandoned or hailing from poor families. ACCEPT has been undertaking public awareness programmes thrice a year.
“ACCEPT also provides ‘Palliative Care’ for patients who are in the final stage of the disease. Till date, nearly 800 have received treatment as outpatients and 200 as inpatients,” explains Dr Timothy Phillips.
At present, there are 30 beds, out of which 10 are provided by the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS).
ACCEPT, with a geographical area of four acres, has dairies and poultry farming too. It has provided a few of its patients with opportunities to work and has plans to extend self-employment to other patients too.
ACCEPT is run with charitable funds contributed by individuals. We are looking for more government support in this regard, says administrator Mr Joseph.
“The government which urges more NGO’s to take up social service and charity work has rendered very little help. Added to this, it may take away the land, in which case, we will have nowhere else to go. Though we have submitted a letter to the chief minister, nothing has been done so far,” says Mr Matthew.
With the number of HIV positives increasing by the day, it is high time the government aided such organisations and provided them with ethical and financial support.