HIV testing camp in Airoli

It has already been a week - but we are still recovering from the aftermath of an excellent HIV testing camp that we conducted together with the Dayasagar Baptist Church and the Kingdom of God Church in Airoli on the 18th of September.

We walked into this with a lot of questions.

It was going to be our first camp where we tested and gave the results on the same day. The location was a bit far from our centre. We were working with 2 different churches. They assured us that many would come - but who could be sure. Would we be sending our staff and just seeing them twiddle their thumbs?

We needn't have worried.

Came the day - came the people. Dozens of them.

The folks in both churches had spread the word. Literally. Some were brought from distant places - having left at 6 AM to be there for the 12 PM start of the camp.

All through the afternoon we had a series of prevention presentations and films being shown in the meeting hall of the Dayasagar Baptist Church.

A few doors down in the home of Bro Guy Rodrigues - a pastor at KOGC - we had the counselling and testing going on.

Each person was met by a trained counsellor and given pre-test counselling. They were explained about HIV and what it does to the body. They were assured of confidentiality. The counsellor explored with them how the would feel if the test showed they were HIV negative - and how they would feel if they were positive. After the session, they were asked whether they would like to go ahead with the test.

In another room, the blood samples were collected and processed. It was a blessing to have hard working staff who really did an excellent job throughout the day.

By 2 pm we had already registered 30 people. At the end of the day a full 81 people had been counselled and tested for HIV!
Vinod, our lab tech was glued to his spot doing the different tests.

And our team was strengthened by the presence of our old friend (and trained counsellor) Daniel Kautikkar who came up for the weekend from his MSW studies in Ahmednagar.

Since we had so many people coming for testing we were unable to give all the reports and post test counselling on that day. It was a blessing that Daniel was able to provide this to 20 odd people on the next day.

Of the 81 people tested, we had 4 who tested positive for HIV. One was a couple who did not want their partner to know about their status. A lot of counselling is needed there. Another was a young man whose wife and children he sent back to their village in north India. A final was a young widow who thought she might have it, but was confused.

Though we are never happy that people are HIV positive - we are glad that we were able to meet these dear people. Our prayer is that they will be followed up and helped to make real positive steps in their lives. Our prayer is also that the 77 people who tested 'negative' will take this as a real God-send to make real changes in their lives.