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Fostering love for HIV orphan
In tough times when things are not getting easier for many, a family in Jakarta has opened its heart and home to a person in need -- something most people would think twice about
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In tough times when things are not getting easier for many, a family in Jakarta has opened its heart and home to a person in need -- something most people would think twice about.
Bearing in mind how people living with HIV/AIDS are still stigmatized and discriminated against, taking in a HIV-positive orphan and treating her like one's own biological daughter is a remarkable act.
There was no drama accompanying the decision to foster the baby called Z.
Martiana, affectionately called Ibu Upik by her family and neighbors, says there is not much of a story to tell.
"It's just an ordinary story," the petite mother of five says.
"It just so happened I knew about Z's condition, and people from the yayasan (foundation) asked if I wanted to help. When I told my husband about it, we immediately agreed to take care of the child here."
Martiana's husband, Abdul Majid, says, "It's God's will that she become a part of my family.
"I recite the Yassin prayer every night and day for her well-being, just like I did for my own children and grandchildren."
A family, says the couple, is the best place for a child, no matter their condition, to grow up in.
The couple's small house in a narrow alley in Kebon Baru, South Jakarta, has provided the 2-year-old baby girl with much love.
To baby Z, Upik and her husband are her mak and bapak (mom and dad) -- just as the couple's other children call them. Soft-spoken Upik is a proud mother whenever she speaks about the baby girl with fair skin and gleeful eyes.
"She's smart and strong-willed. I also believe that she understands our (economic) condition, that she does not demand toys or food."
In return, they expect nothing for their act of kindness. All they hope for is that Z "grows up healthy and leads a better life". And through this act of kindness, the couple has taught neighbors about HIV/AIDS.
The common misconception that the virus can be caught through a mere hug or touch is losing its hold on this neighborhood. Residents have learned about the virus. Some homemakers here help Upik whenever she is called to bathe the bodies of those recently deceased from AIDS-related illnesses -- a new side job for Upik. Most hospitals and morgues in the capital, according to Upik, do not want to take care of those living, or dying, with AIDS.
Outside Upik's modest home, children joyfully play with Z, sharing a small tricycle and a soccer ball.
A neighbor rushes into the house with a crying Z, soothing her with a "Hush, enough crying. I'll pinch those boys for teasing a pretty girl like you." It is a rare scene. One that might not have happened a few years ago when the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS was much stronger.
Upik and her husband brought the then week-old baby to their modest house in mid-2006. At the time, they did not know whether she had the virus, but understood there was a strong possibility she did, because her mother was HIV positive.
The baby's mother gave her newborn over to HIV/AIDS support group Pelita Ilmu Foundation, fearing she could not give her proper care. The baby's father died months before she was born.
The baby, whose Arabic name means graceful princess, was diagnosed with HIV when she was 18 months old.
"Her mother and grandmother came and picked up the baby when she was a few months old, but that was only for one day. They returned the baby to me," Upik says.
"The drugs I'd prepared for her to take remained untouched. The baby was really ill then. So if they ever come back and ask for the baby, I must really warn them about the medicines."
Upik and her husband are no better off than their neighbors in the densely populated Kebon Baru alley. The 52-year-old used to work as a laundry woman in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, before becoming a cook at Pelita Ilmu. She continues to cater for the foundation. Her husband is a Koran teacher.
"My children are all independent. Four of them are married and have left home. We live here with our grandchildren and my youngest son," says the woman who learned about HIV/AIDS from the foundation.
Upik had never heard about the condition before she took the cooking job at the foundation. That was in 1996, a dark moment in HIV/AIDS campaign here, when Soeharto's New Order regime effectively shunned existing HIV/AIDS cases in the country.
Intense discussions on ODHA (the Indonesian abbreviation for people living with HIV/AIDS) were held almost hourly at the foundation, sparking Upik's curiosity.
"I wondered who this 'ODHA' was and why she had so many troubles," she recalls with a smile.
In addition to paying for formula milk, Upik saves part of her meager income for medical expenses. She takes Z for regular checkups at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. The baby must take anti-retroviral (ARV) medication twice daily.
"The drugs are free, but the hospital charges me Rp 20,000 (US$2) to have them ground up," she says.
Each month, Upik sets aside about Rp 100,000, including transportation costs to the hospital, so Z can have her ARV.
According the National Commission for AIDS, Jakarta has the most cases of HIV/AIDS infections in the country. As of March 2008, there were 3,077 reported cases with 435 fatalities.
Over the same period, there were 11,868 cases nationwide with 2,486 fatalities. Of those affected, 210 were children under 14 years of age.
According to a 2008 UNAIDS report, between 30.3 and 36.1 million people worldwide lived with HIV in 2007, around two million of them children, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
Some 2.7 million people were infected with the virus in 2007 -- nearly 7,500 people each day -- with around 370,000 children under the age of 15 infected.
The number of children infected each year has decreased since 2001, thanks to drugs that prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
Husein Habsyi, Pelita Ilmu Foundation deputy director, says there are dozens of babies born to HIV-positive mothers, but only a few cases where HIV-positive babies are cared for by volunteers.
"The number is very small. I think it's less than 10," he says. The care and support program for HIV-positive children started in 1996.
"The best volunteers are families, but in many cases families are not ready to deal with the fact their relative is infected with the virus. Volunteers come in to help the family deal with that," Husein says.
Another reason for the program, he adds, is because many orphanages and shelters were not ready to take in HIV-positive children.
The foundation has developed a network of hospitals and clinics.
"We are trying to ensure families take care of their members living with HIV/AIDS, because family is the best place for anyone, old and young alike, to live in."
