New Delhi (Mizzima) – Charity HIV/Aids shelters and care centres in Indian states neighbouring Burma give a ray of hope to Burmese sufferers able to take the perilous and costly journey from their hometowns, patients say.
Mi Nge (a pseudonym), an HIV-positive 40-year-old mother of two, came to Churachandpur in Manipur State from Kalay Township, in Sagaing Division, to stay at the Happiness HIV shelter, which provided treatment free of charge, she said. “I was depressed and unhappy when I was in Burma. But I feel encouraged here after receiving treatment and have been given hope for my life,” she said.
Mi Nge left Kalay and had an overnight stay at Tamu, a town on the Indo-Burmese border. She then crossed over and took the six-hour bus ride to Churachandpur via Moreh, on the Indian side of the frontier.
“When I got here, the doctors encouraged me to take antiretroviral therapy (ART) medicines regularly and said I would then be OK. I have very young children and I must survive this disease for them. ART gives us hope,” she said.
Manipur is contiguous with Chin State and Sagaing Division and foreigners are denied free passage to India.
“If the soldiers manning the checkpoints found us, they would deport us to Burma and then we would lose the 350 rupees [US$7.70, or about 7,700 kyat] for the bus fare. It’s very difficult for Burmese to travel in India without proper documents,” Mi Nge said.
“As for sick people like me, my heart was beating very fast and I became scared as soon as I left Moreh. The journey is tiresome for women as soldiers manning the checkpoints rudely and thoroughly frisk female passengers. We were very upset,” she added.
There are about 50 patients staying at Happiness. Of them, 15 are young with some under 13 and 10 of the young people are orphans, their parents having died of Aids-related illnesses.
Apart from areas in Chin State, patients hail from Kalay and Tamu in Sagaing.
Swan Maung (not his real name), a Happiness resident also from Kalay, said: “The patients staying here worked different jobs in Burma. Some worked at brick kilns and others as roadside vendors selling fish or textiles. Some worked in rice fields transplanting seedlings and harvesting. They did odd jobs and menial work.”
“The medical care provided here is excellent. The nurses are caring and so are the doctors. I knew I was infected with HIV five years ago,” he said.
Christian pastor Rama (who only gave this single name), who takes care of shelter residents, explained the centre’s regimen.
“First we perform medical check-ups … Then we prescribe drugs and they have to live here for at least six months. If their condition improves considerably after two to three months, they are provided drugs for further regular treatment and they can return home. And that, we visit their homes and we give them more medicines.”
Thida Oo from Burmese Women’s Union (BWU) – a Burmese activist organization and a member of the Women’s League of Burma – providing assistance to Happiness said: “The people coming from Burma had no place to stay … so the pastor built a small shelter in free space on his compound. Then their [residents] situation improved greatly. Many people gave their assistance to Happiness and they [residents] can stay there happily and peacefully.”
“Most of them are of Chin nationality, but [many] Burmese can’t or daren’t come here yet because of the language barrier,” she added.Some individual well-wishers help the shelter with donations of cash, rice, cooking oil, other foods, clothing and disposable needles. Stationery is given to children under 13 for the education they are being provided with. Some patients earn a little money by making handicrafts and Churachandpur hospital and French medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) provide medicines. Some patients visit monthly for treatment and some visit only once in two to three months as they live in remote areas.
On UN World Aids Day, residents from Burma usually attend the ceremony held to listen to lectures on the disease, a source at the centre said.
Yesterday, a HIV/Aids talk show and education programme was held at the “Manipur Youth Organisation” head office from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. attended by about 1,000 people including patients from Happiness, NGOs workers, Christians, hospital staff, police and deputy commissioner’s office personnel.
Meanwhile in Mizoram State, humanitarian aid and medical care was also being provided to HIV/Aids sufferers, a health worker who gave her name as Mi Mi told Mizzima. “ART drugs are being provided to patients at Aizawl [state capital] public hospital free of charge regardless of race or creed. These patients are told to come and receive treatment,” she said.
But some NGOs and charities that had provided ART to patients from Burma had to stop distribution because of financial constraints.
“Previously, the Seventh-day Adventist church, other religious organisations and Dutlang hospital provided medical care to HIV patients free of charge. The … Adventists ran a special HIV clinic … but they had to stop … as they had no more budget … They are now providing only educational and awareness workshops,” she said.
According to statistics posted in October on the Mizoram State Aids control centre website, out of 3,333 people tested, 94 were HIV-positive and 16 had Aids.
“There are many people in Burma who can’t seek treatment because of their poverty. Whenever I think of them, I feel extremely sorry for them and get goose pimples. I came here without any money. I worked for one or two weeks and paid for treatment. I took treatment on a self-reliance basis through this work. This winter, there are some patients who don’t have warm clothes or blankets,” Swam Maung said.
Fellow patient Mi Khin said: “There are many HIV patients like us in Burma. It would be good for them if they had similar shelters and care centres like these.”
“Every human being must die one day and no one on earth is immortal. I wish all HIV patients could take ART drugs regularly and systematically and somehow find hope for survival from this disease,” she said, her voice trailing off, apparently in extreme grief.
Aids is a condition in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal, pre-ejaculate or breast milk. The four major routes of transmission are unsafe sex, contaminated needles, breast milk and transmission from an infected mother to her baby at birth. Screening of blood products has mostly cut the transmission through blood transfusions or infected blood products in the developed world.
