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LIFE AND HEALTH

AIDS awareness for Tibetan university students in Bangalore

By Tenzin Jangchup Lingshar, Bangalore

Bangalore: April 13: A Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) Tibetan student at St. Joseph college of Arts and Science in Bangalore takes an initiative to make sure his fellow Tibetan college going friends in the city are aware of AIDS.

The growing number of AIDS patients in Tibetan community has raised serious concerns among Tibetans and the health groups. The time has come to educate our Tibetan youth on AIDS before many of our aspiring youths become a victim of this deadly disease either due to ignorance or lack of information on the disease. Therefore, shying away from having discussion on sex education on dinner table with kids has become the thing of the past. The parents of today should realize the additional roles with the changing time and situation. Thus, besides their traditional roles of upbringing their children, it is the parent’s responsibility to educate their children on having “safe sex” to prevent the deadly disease like AIDS in particular and other sexual transmitted diseases.

And realizing the urgency of the whole situation, a young Tibetan student takes the initiative of educating Tibetan students and youths in the Bangalore city. The similar awareness campaign on AIDS was done once by group of Tibetan Nursing students of Jamia Hamdard University in Delhi which received appreciation from all corners of Tibetan community.

Every year large number of Tibetan students and youth belonging to some of the major Tibetan settlements in south India choose Bangalore either for their further studies or for job opportunities. Therefore, it has become necessary to educate these youths on AIDS as they could easily become the victims of AIDS.

Four members of an NGO working on HIV/AIDS called, SPAD (Society for People's Action for Development (SPAD) is invited to give an eye-opening talk on AIDS. The event is held at the Tibetan Youth Hostel’s Auditorium. The detailed introductory on AIDS highlighting the possible ways of spreading the disease is followed by close interaction with the audience.

An in-depth discussion on the disease is supported with the presentation of diagrams and factual data. According to them, about 86% of AIDS in India are being transmitted through sexual intercourse, while the children born from an infected mother has 32 to 35% chances of inheriting the disease. Yet, the possibility to protect the new born child from this disease is very minimal unless with a timely medication.

However, AIDS does not spread through kissing, mosquitoes bite, and sharing of food, using the same towel since the virus survives only in blood and gets transferred only through blood.

Using infected patient’s needles, transfer of infected blood and having unprotected sex with an infected person are the most common ways of acquiring the disease.

After the introductory talk, the four members stood up and asked the audience to guess who among them is an HIV positive. After much attempt, the participants failed to identify since none of them possess any apparent HIV syndromes.

However, to our surprise, two among them, a male and a female, are in fact infected with HIV. Both of them narrated their tales of horror on conditions of anonymity. After undergoing great difficulties and hardships, both of them are now completely positive with their lives. They are now using their experiences, knowledge and energy to educate people on the disease to avoid young people from becoming the victims of this disease.

At present, India has over 5.7 million people infected with HIV Positive and the number is increasing day by day while making the young people in particular, increasingly vulnerable to the disease.


Following is the personal story narrated by the two victims.

The female HIV patient narrates his story.

My family reeling under financial crunch, I had to discontinue my schooling after the 10 th grade to get married at an age of 18. We have five children in our family. For a brief period I had experienced a blissful married life with my husband’s business running well. Then after 15 years of sound married life, my husband started getting infected with all sorts of diseases and continued getting worse. Thus after the medical consultation, he was diagnosed with HIV positive. Subsequently, our family members too were requested to undergo medical examination in which I am also found infected with the disease.

Since then, my family life and also the family business suffered serious set backs as people in our locality started avoiding us. Consequently my family members have to undergo a social stigma and which had in fact spoiled my family life in my hometown. All these happened due to people’s awareness on the disease.

We heard of a doctor in Kerala who could heal AIDS patients and immediately we went for the treatment. However the treatment did no good and after 100 days my husband died. It was painful to see almost all villagers avoiding the funeral and nobody was willing to touch the body too.

Since then myself and my family were secluded from all the social gatherings and events in the village and making our life miserable. Finally, I decided to leave my own village and came to Bangalore to start a new life.

In the meanwhile, I got in with NIMHANS hospital through which I got into an NGO working for AIDS awareness and counseling the patients. And now I am leading my life positively and contributing for the benefit of other people. Spreading AIDS awareness and counseling infected persons are what I do now. I have already survived for seven years with HIV positive and I am still alive.

I want to tell younger generation “To take necessary precaution and be bold even if you are infected as infection is not the end of life,” says in anonymity.

The Male HIV patient narrates his story:

I am 28 years old guy from Manipur. I started taking drugs from the age of 13. Since then, I had become addicted to drugs. I remember the days I had been struggling to get money for my regular doses.

I later went to Delhi to work at the airport. While working there in Delhi I got the chance to go abroad. However, I could not fly abroad as my medical examination reported I was having HIV positive. A doctor explained me that I could live not more than two years. I was very much shocked and I did not know what to do.

Very much disturbed, I started over dosing myself with drugs wishing to die at once. But, the doses did not kill me. And then a positive thought came to my mind. I felt, at least I can use my remaining time doing something worth for others instead of wasting it.

I then went to Lucknow and opened an organisation to help drug victims to start a normal life. It was a very difficult job for me and I came to Bangalore and joined with SPAD to work for AIDS people and spread awareness on AIDS.

I now believe “HIV IS EASY TO GET INFECTED AND ALSO EASY TO PREVENT”.

Saying “LIFE WITHOUT DRUGS IS VERY NICE,” he smiles.

Note: this articles or write-up is completely for the sake of giving message to people about AIDS and also to support the people of HIV positive as they too wants to live and smile. The writer can be reached at tenzinjangchup@gmail.com