Ms. Rekha Rajagopal is an Advocate at High Court. She appears as the Advocate on Record as well as a Counsel for various private and public companies. She also owns and manages a long-established legal firm. Apart from Save The Children India, she is affiliated to Maharashtra State Council for Women and Indian Law Institute.
Mr. Yogesh Mehra is a Chartered Accountant and holds the post of a Funds Manager at Yogesh Mehra Associates. He completed his education from reputed institutes such as Institutes of Chartered Accountants of India, Sydenham and H.R. Colleges of Commerce. He enjoys reading, travel and sports.
Married at the age of 15 years, Shabana. F. Shaikh was one of the many victims of child marriages that still persist in rural India. She was a teen when she conceived her first born and without proper care and nutrition the child passed away within a year. This started a drift in the marital life of Shabina and frequent quarrels were a common everyday affair. The next two attempts of having a child again culminated in an unhappy ending, with both the children passing away before they turned a year old. Shabina started having nightmares and mood swings , this gave her husband another reason to abandon her at her maternal home.
With no husband and children, Shabina gradually started to go into melancholy, skipping meals and not socialising with anyone. Her parents took to all forms of traditional healing and medicines in the village for two years, but to no respite.
They reached at the Mobile Medical Unit(MMU) on 3rd November 2016. After taking a comprehensive history from her mother, the doctor at the MMU diagnosed her as a case of severe depression. He prescribed anti depressants and anti psychotic drugs and she underwent counselling by the doctor.
Within 15 days of receiving the treatment Shabina has slowly started recovering from her state. She started taking her meals and talking to her family. The doctor at the MMU is very happy to see the progress that Shabina has made in the last two months , he says “I see a 60% improvement from her initial state and am confident she will recover soon”. Shabina’s parents are thankful to PRIDE India team at the MMU for helping Shabina to make progress.
Being identified with HIV in 2001 did not shatter Bindu and Prakash’s hopes of leading a happy family life. But, their happiness was short lived, when Prakash passed away leaving the responsibility of the household and three young children on Bindu. Having no support from relatives she struggled to fulfill the needs of the family. She gave into depression, which deteriorated her health condition and added to the woes of the family.
During one of his visits in the community, our community outreach worker identified Bindu’s condition and immediately admitted her in the Community Care Centre for HIV / AIDS patients. The outreach team ensured that Bindu and her children received appropriate medical & financial support, and connected her to a local NGO to provide her a livelihood activity. Bindu now is a proud owner of a goat farm (from one goat which the NGO gave her) which helps to support her financial needs. The NGO also provides Rs 450 for her children’s education per month. We see a new Bindu, confident, healthy and empowered who looks forward to a bright future for her and her family.
Savita, 36 year old woman from middle class family from Navenagar of Mahad. She lives with spouse, who is driver on private vehicle and one son & one daughter both are studying in college.
To support family, Savita started tailoring work at home. Last year, while she was in the market she saw the advertisement of “Daksh Center” run by the pride India at Mahad. And she decided to enroll herself for the basic beautician course for July 16 batch.
After getting admission of said course, she came regularly and asked question whenever she had doubts or any queries. She passed this course flying colors.
To take her skills a step further, she availed Rs 50000/- loan from local cooperative credit society. From this financial help she started a small beauty parlor named ‘Pooja Beauty Parlor’ at her own house at Navenagar, Mahad.
Currently, she is undertaking tailoring work and additionally running her beauty parlor and is able to earn approximately Rs 10,000 per month. Savita is thankful to PRIDE India for helping her to become financially independent!
Akash Baliram Jadhav is a 13 years old native of Shirgur, Bidardist in Karnataka state. Akash became orphan at the age of 5 years when his parents passed away due to HIV infection leaving behind Akash with the infection. ‘After his parents demise Akash feels very lonely and always misses his mother’ as says Akash’s grandmother.
The financial conditions at his grandparent’s house were also not so positive. They struggled to make ends meet but ensured that Akash is taken care off. They came to know about the SPARSH CCC and nutrition support programme from the outreach team. In the month of April, 2015 little Akash was bought to CCC by his grandmother with complaints of weakness and other health problems. His CD4 and weight was found to be very low. The CCC team provided medical services and enrolled him on special nutrition diet program. The professional counselor counseled his grandmother on his current health status and gave information on importance of CCC and nutritional diet program. After enrolling for the CCC service Akash availed the ART Treatment family counseling, nutrition, regular health check up under doctor observation and periodic home visits.
After receiving all services from CCC, positive changes have been witnessed in the Akash’s health status. Now his CD4 has increased from 52 to 500 and weight gained up to 39kg from 34 kg which is a significant achievement . Akash is very happy and regularly takes the nutrition diet and medicines. He is also regularly going to school. His family thanks the CCC team and their work for providing social security, medicines and psychological support to overcome their fears. We are happy to see Akash healthy and engaging in his favourite sport – cricket and continuing to avail the CCC services.
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