Day 9 - Wednesday 15th October
 We slept so well and enjoyed a very traditional Indian breakfast in the hotel before heading back to the ACET India office for the morning clinic. A lot of children were coming in for treatment this morning and we had been invited to observe and find out a few of their stories.
Nikita is 5 years old. Both her mother and father have died of HIV and she is living with her grandfather who bought her to the clinic this morning. She is a delightful little girl and sat well on Dr Saija’s lap while he examined her. She has scars on her arms from scratching at her skin, poor skin condition is common for HIV sufferers and had mild anaemia, but generally was very good. She is generally in good health and we were told that with the care she is getting then she could live up to maybe 20 years old. The biggest concern for her is that her grandfather is very old and there is a worry  what will happen to her when he dies. It is only after they have left the clinic that we realise that the file she was playing with on the end of the desk is her mother’s file with the word “DECEASED” across the top. The family had asked for a death certificate to be issued so they could claim on their life insurance, however, the doctor explained that insurance companies will not pay out for HIV deaths.
Simian (meaning Peacock) is a charming 13 year old girl who has been attending the clinic regularly with her grandmother. Her grandmother sat and cried as she told her story. Simian’s mother was her only daughter and she is now caring for Simian knowing that she will die young. She really struggles and ACET were able to refer her to a food programme that will help her with some rice supplies.
 A lady who attended this morning looked very sick and asked the doctor for help. She is working in an office and they have been asking why she is sick so often. She can not tell them that she is HIV positive and asked the doctor for some strong medicine so that she can carry on working. One other man had travelled 400 km to attend the clinic. There are so many heart wrenching stories, and again we were amazed at the patience and compassion shown here by the staff and volunteers. Dr Sujai pointed out that they do not wash their hands between patients or wear face masks as most doctors would when dealing with patients, many of who have TB. He said that they can not tell sufferers that it is okay to live normally with their families if they visit a doctor who does not reinforce this. We spent some time talking to Dr Sujai’s wife, Dr Lavanya. She is a research doctor and she told us about the team of five Phd students who work at the clinic and at the moment are doing more in depth research in to early detection of HIV. The symptoms of HIV can take 3 – 5 years to become apparent and often the signs are other opportunistic infections such as stomach problems, TB, weight loss, infections that don’t heal or fevers that don’t clear up. We talked about the problem with persecution of Christians and she said that ACET is a well respected Research Centre and Clinic so they are not having as many problems as organisation who firstly promote their Christianity.
Once again we were amazed by the level of compassionate care being shown by all the staff in the home and the way they share the love of Christ in such an unconditional way. We were very sorry to say goodbye to them.
We are off to see another home tonight and then early tomorrow heading deep in to the country to visit an English Medium School. Not sure how reliable communications will be so the next update may be at the weekend.
There is just one interesting piece from the newspaper yesterday, which I wanted to share with you. Currently Christians are listed as a minority group in India and employers, schools, colleges, etc. are obliged to take on a certain percentage of those listed as OBC’s. I had to read further to find out that these minority groups are listed as Other Backward Castes!
Thanks again to everyone who is following our progress.
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