Mysore, India: The very thought of AIDS may seem awfully frightening. But meet this bunch of people tested positive with HIV and chances are you will end up feeling that HIV can be overcome and the patients too can lead a contended life. However, what keeps them going is the sheer determination to live.
Meet S Noori, 60, managing trustee of South India Positive Network (SIPN) and Asylum for AIDS orphaned children from Chennai, who is living with the disease for 22 years. If anybody asks her age, her cryptic reply is: "you are asking my age or my my AIDS age?" It is an indication that she has taken the disease in her stride and conquered it.
She has a sordid saga of entering into prostitution at a tender age of 14 after she was orphaned following the untimely death of her parents. "With no alternative left for survival I took up the profession and got afflicted with this deadly disease," she says, adding initially it was tough to face the people. "But later I realized that I should face the people and live along with the AIDS," she says advising other patients to treat this deadly disease as any other disease and live with it. Noori also visits foreign countries to create awareness among the sex workers on HIV.
Laksmi and Rashida, sex workers from Gujarat, are living with the disease for six years, but they were reluctant to disclose it. "After coming here to participate in the Positive Habba Festival, we have decided to disclose about our suffering. Our only worry is about our children getting the right life partners. All that we tell the society is `Live and let the AIDS patients live harmoniously'," they say. Over 500 HIV positive sex workers from seven states are participating in the festival. Courtesy Times Of India
Meet S Noori, 60, managing trustee of South India Positive Network (SIPN) and Asylum for AIDS orphaned children from Chennai, who is living with the disease for 22 years. If anybody asks her age, her cryptic reply is: "you are asking my age or my my AIDS age?" It is an indication that she has taken the disease in her stride and conquered it.
She has a sordid saga of entering into prostitution at a tender age of 14 after she was orphaned following the untimely death of her parents. "With no alternative left for survival I took up the profession and got afflicted with this deadly disease," she says, adding initially it was tough to face the people. "But later I realized that I should face the people and live along with the AIDS," she says advising other patients to treat this deadly disease as any other disease and live with it. Noori also visits foreign countries to create awareness among the sex workers on HIV.
Laksmi and Rashida, sex workers from Gujarat, are living with the disease for six years, but they were reluctant to disclose it. "After coming here to participate in the Positive Habba Festival, we have decided to disclose about our suffering. Our only worry is about our children getting the right life partners. All that we tell the society is `Live and let the AIDS patients live harmoniously'," they say. Over 500 HIV positive sex workers from seven states are participating in the festival. Courtesy Times Of India
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