As I celebrate my 25th year volunteering as an eye surgeon in Southeast Asia. I am delighted to share photos and stories about the vision challenges and the people and cultures of India, Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.  - Dr. Gary Barth

Chronicle 12 - A Journey Toward Helping Remove Impacts of the Stigma of AIDS

On one of our eye surgery trips to rural India, our PRASAD Project team visited a teenage girl whom the PRASAD Project charity's community service/AIDS division was supporting.

This 16-year-old girl’s smile belies a tragic childhood.  

Her father left the farm and went to Mumbai during the dry season. He contracted AIDS, presumably with a sex worker. 

Returning home infected his wife, and she, in turn, during pregnancy, infected the young boy. 
 

Both parents died of AIDS. She and her middle brother are free from AIDS, but the villagers shun them; the stigma of AIDS in rural India is high.

Since she needed to stay home to care for her sick youngest brother, PRASAD taught her how to sew and gave her a sewing machine and supplies. Learning to sew could give her some needed piecework remuneration.

When we returned to India, we brought specialty fabrics, tassels, and buttons for her.