Hello there!
Most days here at the Ashram are filled with laughter & kids being kids but today I want to share a difficult story with you.
Today is all souls day, different from yesterday all saints day (look it up ;) ) One of the older girls at the toddlers house is named Rajeswari, we call her Raje (sounds like Reggie). Her mother died from the virus within the past year, & like all the other kids here she is HIV positive. Most children get the disease from birth (though some girls have gotten in through abuse). The usual case is that the father was a driver, slept with a prostitute, got HIV, brought it into the family, the wife becomes positive & infects her children either by birth or through breast milk. (With proper treatment from the beginning of pregnancy there is an 85% chance that the children will not have the virus, but because the virus lays dormant in some people, they don't know they have it. Some of the pregnant women that live under me at the flat are undergoing this treatment) In Raje's case, her father was not positive. Either the mother had the disease since birth (it can lay dormant for many years) & had a strand of the virus that did not correspond with her husband, but past it on to her daughter-- or she went out of the 'circle of trust'. (When explaining to the kids how someone gets the disease, we use this metaphor. When two people get married, they agree to stay in a circle. Someone went outside the circle & brought the disease back into the circle.) Anyway, most Indian people are very ignorant about HIV, & they ostracize those affected. The village where Raje is from is no exception. People accused her father of killing his wife & infecting his daughter by being with a whore. (this is not true since he was not positive). He received numerous threats & constant ridicule and abuse. About a week ago, he took his own life.
Today Raje is wearing one of her nicest dresses and is going to the cathedral in town with the head of the orphanage, an older girl to translate some things into Tamil (her native tongue) and one of the priests. Today she will find out she has no more family. She is a bright girl, mischievous at times & has a way of convincing all the boys to do things for her (I think we will be friends when she is older ;) ) Today I ask that you keep a special place in your heart for her. She will lead a very difficult life. Let's pray that she continues to bear her cross with joy. Please take a moment to ask God to comfort her as she begins to face difficulties she does not yet understand.
