Public Health
Stories
Arti's Story
Arti Devi struggles for her day to day living. A resident of village Balusashan in Baghauli block of district Sant Kabir Nagar, Arti Devi is HIV+.
Arti Devi was married at the age of 15 years, when a child is hardly ever familiar about the outside world. The difficulties she has faced, however, had made her a mature woman at an early age. Her husband, Narayan, was the only surviving son of his parents after thirteen others had died.
Together with her husband and four children Arti Devi eked a meager living off a small piece of land which was, however, not enough to fulfill the family’s needs. Narayan finally migrated to Mumbai to in search of providing a better future for his family, and Arti Devi who accepted his decision never thought at that time it would destroy her whole life.
Narayan started earning good money in Bombay, which was enough for the family to survive. He regularly used to send Rs. 800-1000 per month to his family. He worked in Bombay for about 10 years but would frequently visit his village once every 3-6 months.
After 10 years Narayan fell critically ill and came back to home. When his illeness persited for over six months Narayan was advised to go for an AIDS test, which in the end confimed that he was infected. Narayan and Arti Devi were shocked after seeing the report. But despite being on treatment Narayan traveled again to Mumbai in search of work both to support his family and to pay for his treatments.
After a year and a half in Mumbai, Arti Devi’s husband returned to the village, again, severely ill and soon thereafter passed away, leaving his wife, four children and an aged mother to fend for themselves.
The behavior of the community and relatives towards Arti Devi changed after Narayan died, and discrimination against Arti and her family began manifesting a myriad different ways. Arti Devi became a daily wage laborer to provide for her family.
Four years later Arti Devi viewed a street play on HIV/AIDS performed by AIF grantee Grameen Development Services (GDS) and was convinced by the GDS counselors to seek testing. Arti Devi tested positive and although shaken, regular counseling by the GDS staff prepared her to face the problem. She also received a lot of support from the members of her Self Help group.
The GDS intervention showed her the right way to access treatment by taking her to the ART Center in Lucknow Medical College. Fortunately, as her CD 4 count was under control, ART treatment was not started on her but she received further counseling and directions at the Umang Community and Care Center in Lucknow.
GDS which used the AIF grant to accelerate prevention education hired Arti Devi as a Peer Educator for sensitizing the people on HIV/AIDS.
Finally, Arti Devi had some good news - all four children have all tested negative. Two among them are attending the local school while Ramu, aged 16 years has gone to work, again, in Bombay but this time fully aware about HIV and the case story of his parents.