• DATE

    22 November, 2016

  • ADDRESS

    KavrePalanchowk

MY JOURNEY FROM A MEMBER TO PRESIDENT

I was born  in Rural Village of  kavre palanchowk district and got married at the age of 14. After marriage, I came to Kathmandu with my husband. He worked in Thamel, Kathmandu. I also came to learn about his drug abusing habit. A number of efforts were attempted to prevent him from drug abuse but all failed. To my misfortune, HIV was found in his blood in the year 1998 and in 2001, he passed away. HIV flooded my life with destruction and misery. I was found infected with HIV, but my son was safe .It was huge relief for me.


The responsibility of caring for a 3 year old son and 85 year old mother-in law fell on my shoulder. I faced hardship in earning a square meal for my family. In the meantime, I fell seriously ill. My medical checkup consumed all the property we had. The doctor started ART for me on 2005. My mother in laws passed away at the age of 93 and I performed all rituals even when I was under ART. My in laws family never supported me at all but I received support from my parent's home. I saw only darkness in my life. I thought I would see no happy days in my life time and I would soon die. The future of my son added to my woes. I was desperately looking for some help. In that state I happened to knock on the door of Shakti Milan Samaj. There I encountered many women of the same fate. Sharing each other's moments of happiness and sorrow healed my wound to a great extent in the sense that it was not only I whose dreams were crushed down. Psychology counseling, informal education, health treatment facilities, supports for my son's education and much more was provided to me by Shakti Milan Samaj and energized my exhausted life. Simply knowing of the existence of organizations which are sensitive to the neglected groups of people like me always bestows comfort and some sort of security to me, in the face of the insecure and uncertain life I am living in terms of social, financial and health dilemmas. In other words, our life without proper care and support from the authority concerned becomes extremely fragile and its repercussions take a heavy toll not only on infected people but on society as a whole.

I entered this organization as a member and today I am entrusted with the duty of president of the organization.I have been serving this organization for the last 10 years. I believe we have accomplished much with our sincere and best possible efforts, but there many things that yet need to be done. We have save hundreds of lives of infected women and children. The campaigns aiming at safeguarding the rights of infected women have gained momentum under our initiative. Vast numbers of people from both rural and urban areas have been sensitized on this epidemic to clear misconceptions, thus reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with this disease. In this way we have put our best and most genuine effort towards the campaign against HIV/AIDS. Irrespective of much of the effort we contributed, we have continuously sensed to be neglected in many respects. Neglecting the concerns of infected women by the stakeholders can reverse the fight and make the so far gained success over HIV/AIDS futile. HIV/AIDS which is spreading like a strew fire can only be restricted if it is dealt with on a level of national and perceived as a multi faceted problems including socio-economic.