NAMAKKAL: Love, care and counselling play a key role in ensuring a better life for the children living with HIV/AIDS. Fr M Edward Xavier, Director of Don Bosco Anbu Illam, knows this better than anyone else. “Tears will roll down our cheeks whenever we listen to the travails of the children who are taken into our fold. Even close relatives, neighbours and fellow students isolate them,” says Xavier, whose home takes care of 75 children living with HIV. The Don Bosco Anbu Illam has been providing boarding and educational facilities to such children since 2007.“Frustration and despair affect them in a big way so much so that they lose hope on a bright future. Only love, affection and counselling can help them overcome that negative impact,” Xavier told Express.All the personnel working at the home mingle with the children and share food with them in order to wipe out the stigma associated with the HIV/AIDS, he noted.According to A Jayapal, a Tiruchengode based child health activist and founder director of the Nalam Child Development Centre, the stigma haunts the children with HIV when subjected to repeated instances of discrimination. Even fellow students show disgust towards these innocent children who got the condition from their parents. Nalam centre provides a platform to such children to mingle with their peers.
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