BHAKTAPUR: The Bhaktapur-based Suruwat Community Treatment and Rehabilitation Center has provided food to HIV-infected children. Food has been provided to 13 HIV-infected children due to the ban on controlling and managing corona virus infection.
Chairman of the organization Umesh Khadka informed that 15 kg of rice, 3 kg of Dal, 2 kg of flour and one kg of sugar, salt, nuts, one liter of oil and half a crate of eggs were provided to each person. According to him, food worth Rs 3,000 per person has been provided.
He said that he had provided food for one month after receiving information that there was a problem in making a living due to the ban. He also said that he was preparing to provide food assistance for another month. In Bhaktapur, 82 HIV positive people including 13 children are taking life-saving medicine ARV. According to program coordinator Pannosh Sharma, the food was provided to 13 needy children who were taking ARVs as a balanced nutrition.
According to him, even during the first wave of corona virus infection, the food was provided to the children in two phases. In the meantime, the infected children have said that they have demanded help this year as no relief was provided even when they demanded it at the local level. They say that their immune system is weakened due to HIV infection and their health condition is serious if they are infected with the corona virus. Therefore, like last year, this year too, they have asked for help at the beginning and they have received help accordingly, he said.
Khadka said that 13 infected children and 37 others were in the process of getting food.
Of them, 31 are poor and destitute. He said that the remaining six were families of former drug users. Chairman Khadka clarified that the assistance was provided from the income earned from commercial potato and vegetable farming. Initially, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been cultivating commercial turnips and vegetables with the support of Nepal. The organization has been renting 8 ropanis of land in Jhaukhel of Changunarayan Municipality-3 in Bhaktapur since 2015 and has been cultivating vegetables.
Of the four municipalities in Bhaktapur, Bhaktapur municipality has the highest number of HIV positive children. Seven people, including a girl, are infected here. There are 2-2 in Madhyapur Thimi, Suryabinayak and Changunarayan.
