TH9258.1371 December 16, 2005 59 EM-lines (619 words)

THAILAND     Thai Social Worker Battles Discrimination Against Kids With HIV

BANGKOK (UCAN) -- HIV/AIDS leaves its young and innocent victims vulnerable to more than opportunistic diseases. This is the problem Suthasini Noiin faces with the children her foundation supports in northeastern Thailand.

"Discrimination faced by children who are living with HIV and AIDS is unjustifiable," says Suthasini, whose Suthasini Noiin Foundation is based in Yasothon, 550 kilometers northeast of Bangkok.

The 49-year-old social worker spoke with UCA News at the end of November at an AIDS rally in Bangkok for World AIDS Day. She discussed her struggle to get people to accept children with HIV.

Suthasini, who recently converted from Buddhism to Catholicism, recounted that she and her co-workers brought 88 children aged 2-18 from her center to protest at Yasothon City Hall in November.

"Ten HIV-infected children in our foundation aged 7-10 were dismissed from the government school," said Suthasini, whose foundation is under the Thai bishops' Catholic Committee on HIV/AIDS.

"Many teachers did not know that the 10 children from the foundation were HIV-positive," she continued. "When they found out, they were reluctant to come in contact with them."

Other children did not play with, eat or talk with them, and did not enter toilets the youngsters from the foundation used, Suthasini said. The 10 children eventually were thrown out of school at the end of October.

"We went to City Hall for an explanation and asked for justice, for the children to be allowed to return to school," she said.

The foundation, originally established in 1992 to work with street children and child laborers, started helping HIV-infected children and orphans in 1997, providing them with accommodations and education. At present, there are 88 children and youths staying at the foundation.

Prejudice and misunderstanding concerning HIV and AIDS remains a problem in parts of Thailand, despite the country's perceived success in tackling the AIDS menace, Suthasini explained.

The middle-aged woman knows what it is like to struggle. She was diagnosed with cancer of the large intestine in 1999. Suthasini was baptized by Paris Foreign Missions Father Auguste Tenaud, who heads the Catholic parish in Yasothon. She said she converted to Catholicism because of the love and care that the priest and nuns showed for hers and for the children at her center.

UCA News spoke by telephone with Father Tenaud, who also joined the protest at Yasothon City Hall. He reported that after they met city and local government officials, including the director of teachers from government schools, "every side agreed and accepted" that the 10 HIV-infected children from the foundation should be allowed to return to school.

The priest, who has been helping HIV-infected children at the foundation for the past eight years, stressed that "HIV-infected children, like all other children, have full dignity as human beings."

Suthasini likewise affirmed that "God loves everyone, especially children." But she said they have to "bring the love of God to people who do not know it," referring to children with HIV/AIDS who suffer discrimination "from people who not understand" how the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spreads.

Besides accommodate these children, her foundation educates communities to help promote a positive attitude toward people living with AIDS.

"I try to emphasize knowledge and love to people who do not understand HIV/AIDS," she said.

Despite her own illness, Suthasini along with her staff and volunteers go to nearby provinces to coordinate with community members and public schools in providing information on HIV/AIDS to students, teachers and school administrators, They two classes a week. Very often they use drama to get their message across. They also provide activities to help students accept HIV-positive fellow students.

Her mission, she said, is "to devote the rest of my life to HIV-infected children and youths."     

Freier Zugang über Registrierung: UCANews