How the Shalom project helped Anjani’s family
Caring for a person who is HIV-positive is more than a medical job. It’s a mission to bring hope — in a situation that is ripe with anger, bitterness, shame and guilt, a sense of deep regret and hopelessness — to the patient, the spouse and all the family.
One afternoon two women came into our care centre, delivered a bedridden man, and began to walk away. One of them, Anjani, was his wife, and the other her sister. It had been two months since his HIV-positive condition had been diagnosed, and the bitterness of the women was very evident. They did not want to touch him, and did not want us to touch him or care for him. On being asked to come and visit, the wife agreed to visit him after two days, and left us with some biscuits and fruit for the man.
But she specifically asked the doctor not to give her husband any care. Theirs was an intercaste marriage, which meant they would have had to face a few obstacles even to get married. But now she was angry and bitter, and he was filled with shame and guilt. He did not want to live, and did not want his children to see him in his present condition. She had been secretly collecting sleeping pills to commit suicide when things got worse for her. Anjani came back to visit her husband after a couple of days. When she saw the way the nurses cared for him, she began to help them with bathing and feeding him. Shalom Care Centre took care of him for about ten days before he died. But by this time Anjani was a changed woman.
She has become very responsible, and is taking care of her two children. She knows the Lord personally, and has been baptised. Her older son has also been baptised, as has her brother and his wife and their son. Her sister visits her every weekend, but she takes the youngest son away, so he does not get a chance to attend church. We are still praying that her sister, and her younger son will come to know the Lord. Anjani and her family are a good example of what real love and care can do in a person’s life.
The vision of SHALOM Delhi is to bring transformation and hope to many people in Delhi and neighbouring states that are infected, or affected by, the unfolding tragedy of HIV and AIDS. SHALOM runs a Home-Based-Care programme (HBC) in Delhi, with the help of church-based volunteers, and works to multiply its impact through the training of other organisations for HBC in Delhi and also in three other states in North India. For more information, visit: www.hopeforaids.org
