Every shelter in Hyderabad refused this HIV-infected orphan
- The boy’s mother died of a heart attack in April this year
- The boy was turned out by his landlord as well
- Every shelter the boy approached, turned him down citing one reason or the other
FollowA 14-year-old orphan boy knocked on so many shelters in Hyderabad but none, absolutely none, opened their doors to him. Even so called NGOs who claim to take care of HIV+ patients turned him down, and so did the Juvenile Home for Disabled.
Was it because he was HIV positive or was it because he is wheelchair-bound and he has motor and speech disabilities? Nobody knows. The boy has dementia and needs help with daily tasks of hygiene as well.
The boy used to stay with his mother at Sultan Nagar, Borabanda, until she died in April, this year. His closest relative – his aunt, refused to take him in and even his landlord kicked him out of the building on May 5 as reported in the Deccan Chronicle. The father, who was HIV positive, passed away when the boy was barely 10.
But among this crowd there was one woman who saw through it all. She came forward and agreed to take care of the boy who nobody wants to take care of. This good Samaritan did what none of these NGOs did.
The 40-year-old widow, who stays in a one room house in a slum near Banjara Hills, opened up her home to the boy. She herself is an HIV patient and after coordinating with Helping Hands Foundation, an NGO, she expressed her willingness to take care of the boy. She also has three other daughters to take care of and one of the girls is  HIV positive, yet she agreed to take the boy in.
Deccan Chronicle reports that Helping Hands has provided around Rs 10,000 for his expenses for medicines and other needs and also provided services like a television, an air cooler and a cot.
Not one of these shelters who claim funding on the basis of supporting and rehabilitating these children came forward to help. In fact, when the NGO approached a shelter in Uppal, the poor kid was made to sit in the sun for 5 hours, only to be told they could not take him in because they did not have the facilities to take care of sick children.
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