Partner highlight: Positive Lives Goa (PLG)

By, Anuradha Mascarenhas, The Indian Express (Sunday Express), April 29, 2007

At 17, he was detected with AIDS. Ten years on, Jaffer Inamdar is helping others like him in Goa

Porvorim, Goa: It’s not easy to deal with a death sentence at any age; at 17, it’s especially difficult. So when Jaffer Inamdar was told by his doctor that he had AIDS and wouldn’t live for too long, it hit him hard. This was in 1997. Ten years on, the 27-year-old from Goa is running a thriving organisation, Positive Lives Goa (PLG), that works for people with HIV. Needless to say, he has won the battle against HIV—almost.

Inamdar’s story may not be too different from the thousands in India who have been infected by the dreaded virus, but being in Goa it was. In a state that doesn’t have a very high prevalence of HIV positive people, it was a challenge for Inamdar to disclose his status. “This was at a time when people did not know the difference between HIV and AIDS,” says Inamdar, whose parents, originally from Karnataka, settled in Goa before its liberation.

Though it took him a while to reconcile to his condition, Inamdar was the first person in the state to publicly declare his status on World AIDS Day (December 1) in 2001.

“There was a need to provide a face and voice to the HIV epidemic and promote the human rights issues of PLHA (People Living with HIV/AIDS) in Goa,” says Inamdar, who feels that the government statistics don’t really paint a true picture of the epidemic in the state.

According to government records, Goa had 9,360 HIV positive cases in 2006, the first case having been recorded in 1989. The infection has crossed 5 per cent among the high risk groups but is below one per cent in antenatal women.

Inamdar set up Positive Lives Goa in 2002 and believes that it is the people living with HIV/AIDS who are part of the solution in addressing the epidemic. “The Goa State AIDS Control Society (GSACS) has given us funds to carry out awareness programmes, but on setting up our office we are ridiculed for being in an upmarket area,” he says. Currently operating from a 500 sq ft flat in a quiet residential area of Porvorim, Inamdar has his fingers crossed that he doesn’t have to shift from here.

A counsellor with PLHA, Inamdar is helped by his wife, Fahmida, who knew about Inamdar’s HIV status before marriage, and still tied the knot. “I was shocked when he told me about his HIV status, but I couldn’t think of living without him. So we practice safe sex and will adopt a child when we want one,” she says. Adds Inamdar: “People feel comfortable when Fahmida is around as she is HIV negative and yet dared to marry me.”

With the GSACS funds, the two have set up a centre that allows PLHAs to visit and participate in various activities. “There’s so much to be done,” he says, as he readies to set up an HIV positive marriage bureau.


Source: http://indianexpress.com/story/29557.html