I see our field staff, working for very modest salaries and long hours to bring help to people living with leprosy, TB, lymphatic filariasis or HIV.

Quite often these same people will join us later as volunteers. Such a person is Mangela Bathula, 37 with a four-year-old daughter called Souheetta.

Mangela is HIV positive; LEPRA has changed Mangela’s life. When I went to her home in the slums I was amazed to find she was going to graduate next March with a degree, having done a correspondence course in sociology and public administration. She wants to become an HIV counsellor.

Mangela was infected with HIV in 2003 by a blood transfusion she received when she had appendicitis.

A pamphlet told Mangela about Cheyutha, a LEPRA project that helps women with HIV. When she fell pregnant, they explained to her that there were tablets she could take that would prevent the infection being passed to her baby.

Yet when she arrived at the state hospital, in labour, she was refused admission:

In desperation she rang Cheyutha who persuaded them to take her. Mangela’s experience could not have been worse:

• Sent up to the labour ward she was told that no one wanted to look after her.
• She was not allowed a bed and told to rest on the floor.
• Her pains were terrible and it became clear that something was wrong. Reluctantly a doctor put her on a bed and she was given a caesarean.
• After the delivery, sick and weak, Mangela was put back on the floor with her baby.
• The baby quickly developed an infection and died.

Mangela had to leave the hospital without her baby and returned home to the house she shared with her husband and his parents. She returned to her job, ironically as a cleaning supervisor in a hospital.

Six months later, she became pregnant again. This time, with Cheyutha’s help, the delivery went well and she brought a beautiful baby girl home.

More heartache was to follow:

The hospital advised Mangela not to have any more children. Disappointed in Mangela, her husband started beating her. When questioned by his parents he told them about Mangela’s HIV status.

Forced to leave the house they found a room to rent elsewhere. Within a month her husband had gone back to his parents and Mangela was left alone with her daughter. Mangela went on working until a friend of her husband’s told the hospital where she worked that she was HIV positive and they sacked her.

LEPRA was able to help once more:

Mangela struggled to survive until she went to Cheyutha and was offered a job as an outreach worker helping other HIV positive mothers. Now Mangela lives with her 16-year-old sister and her little girl in one small room with a makeshift kitchen at the back and a toilet shared with four other families.

Now Mangela helps other women to improve their lives:

While her mother looks after her little girl, she works hard helping other HIV infected women avoid the terrible experiences she had, giving them medicines, advice, and above all support because most face ostracism and poverty. Cheyutha also helps them earn a small income making little things for sale.

I asked Mangela what had been her happiest experiences. She said the birth of her daughter and the day she had organised a Cheyutha party for HIV mothers. “For the first time I saw them laughing and happy; like me, they knew they were not alone.”

LEPRA relies heavily on support from people like you. Find out more about supporting LEPRA with a donation or a gift in your Will.

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Posted by nicolettedawson 11:59 13.01.2011

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