World Bank staff provides assistance to people living with HIV/AIDS
Ms. Ly Nareth, World Bank Health Development Officer and Toomas Palu, World Bank Lead Health Specialist handing a sewing machine to people who live with HIV/AIDS at Srah Chak Community, December 10, 2008
“Brothers and sisters at the World Bank Cambodia Office, I would like to thank you all so much for your help and support,” says Bopha (her given name), a mother of two children who is living with HIV/AIDS. She chokes, and tears roll down her emaciated chest as she receives a sewing machine and other gifts from World Bank staff. “I will use this machine to sew clothes to support my son and my daughter,” she says.
Bopha was one of 30 people living with HIV/AIDS who received gifts from World Bank staff. The gifts – including five sewing machines, 25 mosquito-nets, 25 kramas, and 25 mats – were provided by World Bank staff on December 10, 2007, to people living with HIV/AIDS, to mark International AIDS Day. The 30 beneficiaries, who live in the Srash Chak community in Phnom Penh, also received notebooks and pencils for their children.
The National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology, and Sexual Transmitted Infection (NCHAD) estimates that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia declined to 0.9 percent in 2006. But it says 67,000 people between the ages of 15 and 49 have HIV/AIDS. Of those more than 30,000 are AIDS patients and nearly 23,000 are receiving ARV treatment. There are also nearly 4,000 children under the age of 15 who are HIV positive and of those more than 2,000 are under ARV treatment.
The World Bank’s health specialist, Toomas Palu, one of the organizers of the December 10 event, said International AIDS Day reminds people of the challenge that the world and millions of people are facing in dealing with the disease. “We see that these people are full members of the community: they are working and supporting families and contributing to community and society; they are parents of children,” he said. “But now they are struggling to live a normal life, and sometimes they suffer because parents, children, spouses or relatives have lost their lives, and sometimes they are challenged by the high cost of medicine. So they need care, support and encouragement from the community and from all of us.”
He said although the gifts were small, they presented an opportunity to people living with HIV/AIDS, bringing hope back into their lives and offering a means of supporting their family and children.
“We know that these gifts are not enough to solve all the problems they are facing, but at least they can help them to get back in work to support their lives and families,” Mr. Palu said.
Mom Sophal, HIV/AIDS program coordinator for the Phnom Penh Health Department, said the gifts are a great help to people who live with HIV/AIDS.
“I am so impressed with the generosity of World Bank staff sharing the burden of the victims of HIV/AIDS and providing them with support.”
The event was jointly hosted by the Phnom Penh Municipality Health Department, World Bank, Vithey Chivet, the Indradevy Association, and Sangkat Srah Chak. Vithey Civeth is an organization formed by a group of people living with HIV/AIDS to provide support and care to people with HIV/AIDS. Indradevy is also an association to support and improve home based care for people who live with HIV/AIDS. The event ended with a solidarity lunch for all participants.
(Source: The World Bank’s Newsletter, volume 6, number 2, February 2008)