Another HIV-positive five-year-old

Another HIV-positive five-year-old was accommodated at an organisation catering to such children by the same NGO two years ago. Her five siblings have not seen her since. The two eldest, aged 17 and 15, dropped out of school three years ago when their mother succumbed to the virus. Since then, they have been surviving on their sewing skills. “She misses her sisters, she asks about them even now. But they cannot afford the bus fare to come to her,” says Manju Manak, project coordinator at CHELSEA’s Shahdara centre. In the Capital, Naz and and Deepa Foundations, the only two providing hostel facilities for such children, have a cap of 30 and 15 children respectively.