Samvad HIV / Aids Helpline in Pune completes 6 years

Samvad HIV / Aids Helpline, run by Muktaa Charitable Foundation (MCF), recently completed six years. The service was started by nine like-minded individuals from Pune and it has received around 1 lakh calls from all over India till date. Expanding its services, the helpline is all set to launch its new project, Ankur, that deals with systematic disclosure of HIV status to affected children, besides other related issues.

One of the founding members, Madhu Oswal, tells DNA about the need for specialised and trained counsellors to communicate about the disease to affected children and how the project will be implemented on ground level in the city.

Tell us about the new project, Ankur.  
We, as a society, are yet to realise the need of stage-wise disclosure of HIV status to affected children. Even an adult receives a shock when he discovers his HIV positive status; imagine the trauma of a child.

If a child gets to know about his HIV status suddenly, then they either take it too lightly or become rebellious and tend to deliberately infect others.

We did a survey of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the city to find out how well-equipped they are to handle the issue. We found that there are no trained counsellors and even NGOs have no idea as to what is the right age to disclose the fact or how it should be done. Parents tend to delay the disclosure. If a child has got it from its parents, they prefer not to tell the child. But even that is dangerous. We, therefore, decided to fill this gap. We are training counsellors, especially for this task.

What is the right age to disclose it to children? Have you prepared a special module to train counsellors?  
Two psychologists from London have helped us with the module. However, we have redone it to suit Indian society, considering the socio-economic conditions here. We also referred to the African module.

When a child is aged between 8 and 10 years, it is the right time to start communicating with the child about the issue.

It has to be done systematically. We have divided it in three stages: during age 8-10, we can start with telling the child about germs and how they harm the body; between 10 and 12 years we can explain to them about the 'bad virus'; thereafter we can start telling them about HIV and how it is transmitted.

How do you plan to implement Ankur?
We have trained three counsellors in systematic disclosure of HIV
status to affected children. They went through intensive training in child psychology and mock sessions. We will start with about 30 children and we will choose 15 affected children each from two NGOs working for the HIV affected.

These children will be from various age groups. It takes at least six months to complete the process with one child depending on the age. We will study the impact and then reach out to the common public. By next year we will launch it on a wider scale.
We also need volunteers for the project and those willing to join can email contactus@mcf.org.in.

Samvad HIV / AIDS helpline numbers are: Maharashtra- (+91)
(020)-26381234, Bihar-0612-2575757.