Our Widow Mothers and Grandmas sharing their Concerns on International Women's Day


International Women's day was commemorated on March 10th 2018 at the Nalam Child Development Centre, Project of Buds of Christ at Tiruchengode. This year the focus was on highlighting the concerns of women and grandmothers in the context of HIV. The chief guests for the meeting were Ms. Aseen Banu, Secretary /Sub Judge, District Legal Services Authority, Namakkal, Mr. Saddique Ali, Senior Administrative Officer and Dr. Dhivya, Medical officer, ART centre, Tiruchengode.

The women's group of the centre presented their concerns in the areas of Health, Social, Economic, Emotional and Protection context and also derived a set of recommendations. The key highlights were on stigma and discrimination in the private health care settings, family, work place and community, economic instability due to lack of regular income, burden of supporting their children's education and protection issues of widow women and children.

Ms. Aseen Banu spoke about the laws and acts that help women and children like the Prevention of Child Marriage, domestic violence and also on protection issues. She also assured the support from the district legal authority on any issues of discrimination in the hospital setting, land disputes, property issues and on all legal issues and facilitating access to the government schemes were assured at the meeting. 

The support in accessing the legal services through Para legal volunteers in enabling a friendly access to the legal benefits was also ensured. Further legal advice and counsel has been ensured at the centre on a monthly basis.


The Medical officer Dr. Dhivya also assured full support of the team in ensuring a conducive environment for people living with HIV in the treatment settings not only in Govt hospitals but also in private hospitals by talking and sensitising them. The commemoration ended with acknowledging and awarding a widow women and a grand mother as STARS in providing the best possible care for their children and grandchildren.




Popular posts from this blog

Confidence Building Camp for Orphan Adolescents

Image
What is Buds N Colors Camp? Buds N Colors camp is for adolescent children orphaned and affected by HIV and AIDS in the HIV high prevalent Namakkal district in Tamilnadu. The aim of this camp is to share love, build hope and strengthen faith to live life with dignity and courage. Why this camp? Adolescents living with HIV find it hard to set higher goals due to the fear that dominates their emotions. HIV has affected their self –image causing a severe low self esteem. Our experiences from the previous camp have shown, given a space for the adolescents, they emerge as leaders of hope and change for others like them. Who are the participants at Buds N Colors Camp? This camp is exclusively for adolescent children who have lost one or both parents to HIV and AIDS in the age group of 12 to 18 years. Around 40 adolescent children will participate in this camp What is the uniqueness of the camp? This camp provides opportunity for creating peer buddies among ...
Read more

Nothing is impossible for those that BELIEVE – Bharathi has scored 408 in 10th public exams amidst difficult circumstances

Image
It is another joyous moment to share that our children have excelled in their 10 th public exams and going beyond the limitations and challenges once again. The experiences of these children, especially widow headed households face the pressures of early marriages; or stopping education and sent for work to support the family income. In addition if they are the most backward caste in the community, they are often discriminated by other members in the community. Bharathi has put her dream path, possible challenges and how she would overcome them  Bharathi is from the most backward community and living with her widowed mother. She has one elder sister who eloped and got married to a boy from the neighbouring village. Bearing the stigma of run-away sister, widowed mother’s daughter and the caste discrimination, along with severe power cuts that lasted up to 12 hours in a day, Bharathi as young as 14 years took these obstacles as milestones to prove her capacity and bring a ...
Read more

Educating Children Enabling Independence

Image
“Education is for improving the lives of other and for leaving our community and world better than we found it.” Buds of Christ organised Education support program for boys and girls on 7 October 2021. 16 children from class 9 th to 12 th participated and received school bags and notebooks.   The event started with a moral story on Being Focussed on the Vision for life shared by Mr. Jeyapaul Director of Buds of Christ. Following that Communication skill was taught to children as part of Life Skills Education.   The reason for Buds of Christ to enhance the skills of children on Life skills goes with the quote that “Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It’s about widening our knowledge and absorbing the truth about life".   This was followed by life experience sharing by the Program Chief Guest Ms. Kaleeswari, Commercial Assistant from TamilNadu Electricity Board.   She shared her life history and motivated the children to be eager for stu...
Read more