Catholic Hospital Association of India (CHAI) had organised two workshops, one for the stakeholders who were involved in and implementing HIV/AIDS programme in Andhra Pradesh, and another for the positive groups and positive individuals who were part of the NGOs or registered separately. The two-day workshops at OM (Operation Mobilisation), on the outskirts of Hyderabad, on July 10-11, culminated in a meeting where the concerns and issues raised at the workshops were shared with a specially invited large audience, including college students.
Addressing the public meeting on 'Combined Action to Combat HIV/AIDS,' jointly organised by CHAI and CRS (Catholic Relief Services), Vijayarama Rao, AP Minister for Commercial Taxes, said prevention had become the only way to contain the dreaded disease until someone came with a cure for AIDS. What was needed was confidence and acceptability - confidence for those affected by the disease and acceptability of those people by the people around them.
He said it was not enough to control the size of the population. "The concern is to have a healthy population. More than four lakh people in Andhra Pradesh are affected by the disease, which is threatening every section of the population, though we know its major cause. About 80 % of the disease is caused by unsafe sex practices and a bold and clear campaign to educate the people on the serious consequences of the dreaded disease alone can contain HIV/AIDS," he said.
He had admiration for the pioneering efforts undertaken by CHAI and other NGOs in combating AIDS. He said it was a very appropriate forum where the deliberations would have been authoritative, qualitative and informative and promised to take up the recommendations of the workshops in the larger interests of the society.
Raising his concern for the patients, Fr Sebastian Ousepprampil, Director of CHAI, said HIV positive people were often disowned by their families, shunned by their friends and fired by their employers. "Only when we put aside our fear and address the controversial issues head-on, will persons suffering from HIV/AIDS be able to reach their full potential and live their lives with dignity." Awareness and vigilance was the only way to stop this fourth biggest killer in the world, Fr Sebastian said.
Giving details of the role of his organization in combating the disease, he said CHAI, with its 3,100 healthcare institutions spread all over India, and 315 member institutions in AP, had been rendering quality healthcare. CHAI had been working in collaboration with AP AIDS Control Society (APSACS) and was involved in the initiation of Drop-in and Counseling Centres, which provided a comprehensive support (medical, psychological and social) to the HIV/AIDS infected and affected. CHAI was also working towards school AIDS education, wherein knowledge on HIV/AIDS and related issues was being imparted to adolescents. In addition, CHAI had been regularly organizing a variety of training and capacity-building programmes for skill up-gradation in various aspects related to the disease and its management.
Fr Sebastian said the challenge of the new millennium was to not only control the communicable diseases but also to combat the newly emerging diseases. This could not be done in isolation and, therefore, CHAI had planned to network and collaborate its shared mission and creative determination to translate the vision into a reality. The current workshops bringing together various stakeholders were part of this endeavor.
The objective of the state-level workshop of the stakeholders was to show solidarity in Networking towards the concerns of the people who were infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. He said it was an effort to understand the concerns of the youth, and women in particular with the problems they faced, so as to provide care and support and to develop strategic plans with networking groups for effective interventions in their ongoing programmes.
The objective of Networking and collaboration of Positive groups in AP was to support and provide a platform for the HIV positive people in raising and sharing their concern on issues related to HIV/AIDS, so as to enhance their quality of life.
More than 40 organizations from 12 districts of AP had participated in the workshops. These organizations had been implementing targeted interventions on specific issues such as street children, sex workers, slums and truckers.
Gopal Singh, Dy Director, APSACS, who came in the place of Ms Damayanti, Project Director, APSACS, said the disease spread through unsafe sex, blood transfusion, repeated use of syringes and needles for injections and from mother to child. He said with one case reported in India in 1986, there were 30 lakh people affected by HIV/AIDS and more than 4 lakh cases in Andhra Pradesh. About 19 % men and 13 % women had extra-marital relationship in Andhra Pradesh. This was one of the reasons for the high incidence of the disease in Andhra Pradesh among the southern states. APSACS was taking care of the high-risk population with the help of NGOs and other voluntary organizations. " We must protect ourselves, our family members and the society from this dreaded disease," he said.
Gopal Singh lauded the role of CHAI and said it was doing a wonderful work in collaboration with APSACS. He also underlined the need for networking and effective coordination among the various agencies working in the field.
Alex Mathew, zonal representative, CRS (Catholic Relief Services), a US -based organization with operations in more than 30 countries, said it was a war. Describing it as a major challenge, Alex Mathew said the strength of the various organizations had been weakened by isolated and fragmented work. " If we can pull all our resources and efforts together and formulate a working strategy, we can address the issue of HIV/AIDS. The agencies should broaden the outlook and work together involving even the people tested positive, " he said.
The so-called self-help groups focused on money and not much came out of such organizations, he lamented.
The live wire of the two-day workshops was Dr Christopher Nathan, Programme Manager of CHAI's CD and CME programmes. He said about 150 delegates, including 40-45 NGOs and HIV Positive groups, participated in the programme to discuss the problems and plan the strategy to combat the disease. There was concern for the problems of women and children. The workshop also evolved an action plan, he said.