Discrimination against children living with HIV/AIDS and their families is widespread in Nepal. Children whose HIV status is known may lose their school, their care-giver or guardian support, and they may be denied medical care. They may be denied access to school or treated badly there, kept at home to care for sick family members, or be unable to pay school fees because the family wage earner is sick or dead. HIV-infected, innocent children are deprived of basic right to a decent education. They are also less likely to get adequate food, medical care, and more likely to be pulled out of school to care for a sick family member or to take over domestic work. Extended family members may refuse to care for children orphaned by AIDS, especially those who are also HIV-positive. Here are few heartfelt examples:

Saradha's parents died soon after her birth because of AIDS. She was just 5 years old. When we went to Saradha's village, she was suffering from malnutrition. Her care-giving relatives did not initially know she had an HIV-infection. After discovering that Saradha was HIV-infected, her family sent her out of the village daily to do domestic work; they were frightened to spend their days with her in close proximity because of a lack of education about how HIV is transmitted. Because of the lack of nurturing environment, she suffered from malnutrition and became very sick. We got information about her from media provided by a hospital. After we rescued her....click here for success story

Kushal has one younger sister. At an early age, they lost many people whom they were entirely dependent upon. They lost their mother very early. After losing their mother, their father left them in their uncle's house (mother's brother) in Salyan district. After few month in their uncle's house, Kushal lost his grandfather who was taking care for them. Just after three days, the brother and sister were informed that their father had also died from AIDS. Kushal went back home to Dang to fulfill his duty in Hindu ritual for a father's death as a son. As per the Hindu ritual, this young boy spent 13 very difficult days of rituals. Being young with HIV-infection these kind of harsh ritual could put his health in real danger with serious consequences.

After both of their parents died from AIDS, his own relatives began to abandon them. Their uncle (father's brother) gave Kushal 40 rupees(about 40 cents) and some dry food and send them to Salyan, his mother's brother's district. Due to a lack of proper care in his early age, Kushal was already involved in harmful activities like stealing, smoking, drinking alchol, etc. at a very young age. After a while, one of the red cross volunteers wrote their story in the newspaper, and we learned about their light. We immediately started the process to rescue these two innocent children. After we rescue him....click here for success story

Note : You can follow and visit Baby Life Home for many other infected children stories and progress. Now we are providing food, medication and education for 23 HIV-infected children in our home.