Name: Gangadhar
Age: 7 Years
Status: Positive
Gangadhar is lives in a village called Suryanagar, Anantapur district. He lost his mother eleven months back. His father was not very responsible man. He had married soon after the birth of Gangadhar’s elder sister. He did not even attend his wife’s funeral. Maternal grandparents alone were taking care of the children. But luckily the elder daughter (Gangadhar’s) sister is fifteen years old and she brought up her siblings. Soon she was married off and none was there to tend these young ones. Carers are so old that they are unable to give support to the children. They are just not in a position to take up household chores due to their ripe old age. Old grandparent(father) is an alcoholic and has taken up drinking very dearly as none of their relatives visit them for fear of contracting HIV. There is a lot of discrimination that is hurled on the child due to the loss of social acceptance. The child knows his status and was quite depressed.
It is at this juncture, WINS intervened and tried to address the issues. Gangadhar wouldn’t take showers and wouldn’t get his haircut done. He wouldn’t cut his nails.He had running nose. WINS team soon educated the carers about the effectiveness of home based care. Mosquitoes nets were provided to them. Nutritious food, way of preserving nutrients were all discussed to the elders in the family. Menus were prescribed considering the locally available food stuff. Nutritious supplement such as egg, and milk were provided for the child.
WINS team also introduced Educational support. The elders in the family were motivated to send the children to creche. They were told that in case of refusal in admission to children WINS will step in. They realized that the child should be in school. As a follow up measure when the staff visited the school, they were surprised to find out that the child was not in school. Immediately they rushed home and realized that the teacher was beating the child for not doing homework (meaning the child has to do written work at home) and it made the child abstain from school. The teacher was given a strong warning that beating will amount to child abuse and that the teacher must not beat the child at any cost. They realized their mistake. Every time little things that matter for the child in terms of hygiene, nutrition, self-care,medication, nursing care were reemphasized. This has helped caregivers and the child hope for a better tomorrow.
The child has been able to play in WINS drop in center and has gained happiness and pleasure. Gangadhar now looks cheerful and has learnt new games such as carom board and ring ball. The change of mood in the child is so perceptible that it has to be seen to believe it.
Caregiver’s training is also very useful as it helps them clarify doubts such as cough,frequent fevers, motion personal hygiene, genital hygiene etc. WINS team was also quite instrumental in addressing the stigma and discrimination issues.