Its a girl!

Another reason why we are here in Thane:

Mr. and Mrs. Shristhi had their second child yesterday. Its a girl!

We have seen the amazing way that Mr. Shristhi has been living his life with dignity as a man with HIV. It was wonderful to see their first child come into this world and bring so much light to a set of parents who are living with the disease.

Now we have the joy of seeing a second kid!

Yesterday when Mrs. Shristhi was admitted into hospital she asked for one of the JSK staff to come with her. Her son had burned his hand on some milk recently and still needed care. One of our nurses went - and was helping the family when the new child was born.

We are so glad that our government gives free ART to people with HIV. We are so glad that mothers are tested for HIV as part of their antenatal care - and are given medication that reduces the risk of transmission to their children.

We are also so glad that we have a local Sunday school where the children have saved money all last year - and have donated it to Jeevan Sahara to be able to help mothers like Mrs. Shrishti afford infant formula. This means that they child will not have to be exposed to the HIV in her milk. We have seen how much this helped Mr. and Mrs. Shrishti with their first child.

We are grateful for our JSK staff who regularly meet with this dear family to encourage them. This family has gone through some real challenges - and still face multiple issues - but they are moving forward.

Now we celebrate a new life - and another new hope for this family.

Life worth living.