Kerala Govt. and Church join hands to launch school for HIV/AIDS children

Thiruvananthapuram – The state government of Kerala is all geared up to launch a school that will cater to the exclusive needs of HIV/AIDS children. This school, proposed to be established sometime soon, will be managed by the Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese.

According to Fr. Varghese Palathingal, executive director of the Mar Kundukulam Memorial Research and Rehabilitation Complex – Care and Support for HIV–positive Persons, as per the directions of the Chief Minister, Oomen Chandy, they had submitted an application for the school to the concerned authorities on October 21.

On October 18, Chief Minister Chandy, who is a Christian, was in Thrissur to inaugurate a function to initiate HIV–Positive children to education – called the ‘initiation to first letters.’

According to him, the rehabilitation centre had done a “great service to the hapless children and the society where there was great social stigma for the HIV–positive persons.”

“They became victims of the dreaded disease for no fault of theirs,” the chief minister said. “The AIDS and HIV–positive patients have suffered a great deal of physical pain and mental agony because of the callous attitude of the society as a whole.”

The Chief Minister later “initiated into letters” seven HIV–positive children and spent some time with them. Chandy also visited the AIDS patients undergoing treatment at a hospital.

According to Fr. Palanthingal, the stipulation for granting the government–aided school exclusively for the HIV–positive children was to admit affected children from any corner of the state.

The need for such a school in the state was felt particularly when two years back, there was a great controversy over the refusal of admission of two HIV/AIDS children in a government school following strong objection from the parents of other children and the unwillingness of a section of teachers to teach the HIV–positive children.

The incident was followed by public protests against the rude and cruel action of the school authorities and following a special order by the then Kerala Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, the two children were provided facilities for education, Fr. Palathingal recalled.

“HIV–affected children face lot of hardship in getting admission in schools because of social stigma. Even the highly educated and prominent members of society fall prey to misconceptions about the pandemic and ignore the plight of AIDS–affected children,” the priest added.

It would be a great boon for the illiterate HIV–positive children in the state if the government granted permission to start the school as early as possible, he said.

Mar Kundukulam Memorial Research and Rehabilitation Complex was founded by the late Archbishop Mar Joseph Kundukulam of Thrissur in 1999 for the care and protection of AIDS and HIV–positive patients. Archbishop Kundukulam, who was popularly known as the Bishop of the Poor, had spearheaded several charitable institutions to uplift the poor and downtrodden irrespective of their caste, creed and colour. He was the bishop of the Thrissur from 1970 to l995 and archbishop from 1995 to 1997.