| Reetu |
Posted
on 04-Jul-01 01:32 PM
hi everyone, please take a look with a patience that makes us grieving. it was published in "The Kathmandu Post" on 24th, june. i am personally asking for helping them from this wealthy continental people (USA) who really need help in their lives.
Reetu...
source: http://www.nepalresearch.com/health/hiv_aids.htm
HIV-infected Sharmila is living for a cause
By Tashi D Thinley
KATHMANDU, June 23 - Courage and determination has no limits and nothing can deter them. However mighty the hurdle, the courageous and the determined have always overcome all the odds. Even in the face of death.
One such person is 24-year old Sharmila Rai. She is not an ordinary lady. Not only because of her indomitable courage and never-say-die spirit, but also because she has not many years to live. She has contacted HIV, the precursor to AIDS which has no cure.
But she is not worried about her imminent end, whenever it comes. She is now busy studying in class three in a school. She could have been teaching students of class three herself. Only if a cruel incident had not occurred years ago.
Sharmila was one of many who was misled by people who lured and fascinated her to take the earliest train to Bombay. She was a mere 15-year old girl, naive and yet a brave girl. She went to Bombay in the hope of getting a decent job there.
She did get the job but something that she never even imagined. She was, at that tender age, caught up in the Bombay brothels for seven months. She was later taken to a rehabilitation centre in Bombay where she spent some months, before she, along with 18 other girls, flew back to Nepal with the help of various INGOs.
Back in Nepal, she was taken in INGOs like CWIN and ABC Nepal, where she received numerous counselling and awareness on AIDS. She was told that she had HIV symptoms coupled with tuberculosis. "That was the worst stage of my life; I was on the verge of giving up life and hope" Sharmila said.
She got the dreaded news at a time when AIDS created a panic in the world and people just did not even want to hear the dreaded term AIDS. Society looked down upon them and the victims themselves preferred to put fatal disease under the carpet.
For Sharmila, her world came crashing down. It was a fear of HIV coupled with despair and frustration.
Then a period of counselling and training began for her. She has proved to be a winner, says a doctor who has counselled her for two years. Says Dr Pushpa Bhatt, " Sharmila has acquired high self-esteem and is an independent woman today. I am proud to know her and she has now become an example for other HIV victims and AIDS patients."
Sharmila attends school daily. As her proficiency in English improves, she will be directly promoted to class five. In all probability, she hopes to study till class X.
She is doing all this, and living for a cause : Sharmila wishes to do something worthwhile for many underpriviledged kids back home.
"I have realised the importance of education today. And if I get to study till class X, I wish to go back to my village and teach the children there," says she.
Today, She is a busy woman. Sharmila is an expert hand in cross-stitching, embroidery, knitting and sewing. She now earns a decent income by selling her products.
Besides going to school, she represents AIDS victims in various conferences and gives them emotional support, health tips and personal guidance.
In her own words she tells her friends and sisters, "All human beings have to die one day, so one should not fear death. As long as we live, we should do something worthwhile for others."
Are other HIV victims, AIDS patients and their families and neighbours listening?
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