The
lady in the red sari is called Gouri. She is completely blind, with cataracts in
both eyes. The lady who is standing with her very kindly brought her to Brighter Future at the
suggestion of our Prem Nivas Nurse. They got talking on the bus when Nurse
Laxmi was taking some of the Prem Nivas children to the government centre to
get their HIV treatment. Gouri is HIV+ so Nurse Laxmi had probably seen her at the Government ART centre.
The
two ladies live in Gajapathinagaram, the
nearest large village to Prem Nivas. Victor said that Gouri lives in a ‘toy’
hut, for which she pays 100 rupees a month to the lady who is in the photo with
her. I think it must be a very small
hut or even an outhouse as room rents normally cost more than 1000 rupees. Victor
didn’t ask Gouri whether she gets a
pension of 200rp a month or whether she begs for her living.
Victor
has spoken to the surgeon who does cataract operations for us on our leprosy patients.
He has agreed to operate privately on Gouri in ten day’s time. As Gouri is HIV+ he will perform only her operation on
that day and the operating theatre will be closed for the rest of the day.
Normally
no private surgeon will operate on an HIV infected person and no private
hospital will admit them. The only hospitals that have to admit HIV+ people are government hospitals. They do not attract
the most dedicated staff, they keep patients for as short at time as possible,
and have horrendous queues and waiting lists as there is no appointment system.
When
our children go for their monthly medicine distribution to the local
Vizianagaram government hospital they can be in a queue of two hundred or more. Each patient is weighed and their dose re-assessed. They may not be seen for several hours. They miss school and they don't get any lunch until the afternoon, when they get back from Vizianagaram Hospital.
