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Founded
in 1997 by a group of 13 Service Officer’s wives,
Women’s Action Group – CHELSEA (wag-CHELSEA),
a non-profit NGO, under
direction of President, Mrs.
Doe Nair, has been
serving the Shahadara community in Northeast Delhi since
2001. In addition to community outreachwork which
provides HIV education, counseling and testing, wag-CHELSEA
maintains ‘Akankshya’,
a care and support home for people living with AIDS (PLHA)
including 8-10
AIDS orphans. They also staff and supervise a Day School, ‘Satheekshya’,
for 65 HIV affected and vulnerable children, which prepares
and motivates them for mainstream education. Vulnerable
children are those who have at least one family member
who is HIV+. Over 250 such children have been identified
in East Delhi.
In 2005, I visited the Day School on several occasions to
photograph the children and during my recent visit, returned
on Report Card Day. Mrs. Neelam Dang, Secretary,
was distributing |
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discussing reports with mothers who accompanied their
children for the
occasion. Most of the families are
Muslim and all are affected by HIV/AIDS, meaning at least
one family member is HIV+ or has died of AIDS. Nonetheless,
the pride of accomplishment
was evident in the faces of |
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the
mothers and their children as they awaited and received
their reports…
~DMG |
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