MILANA

A network of people living with HIV, MILANA, is a unique initiative enabling women affected by HIV to access their rights and lead a life of dignity by battling social stigma against positive people.

The initiative that started work in 2001, with just five positive people, today has over 300 families in its ambit and is a major player in the policy and advocacy discussions in the state of Karnataka.

Though counseling and emotional sharing remains the core strength of the group, which is solely supported by ActionAid, a holistic approach of fighting for entitlements, employment, nutritional and medical support has had a direct impact of the lives of the HIV affected people and their families.

The concept of ‘grounding of rights’ has made a clear impact on the functioning and vision of MILANA. This has allowed the group and its members to seek a much larger role than looking merely for emotional reprieve.

Many of the women who have been part of the network for over three to five years have become peer counselors. They reach out to a large section of local population, mostly women, to help them and those around them come to terms with their status as HIV affected people.

Working with poor communities, this initiative reaches out to the most marginalized sections of society – widows, single mothers and abandoned children. The testimonies of those working as peer counselors reflect an emerging feminized perspective on HIV and AIDS.  

Looking ahead the group is confident of its ability to take this intervention to a larger-scale reaching more people. Children affected by HIV are a critical age group that MILANA members want to work for in a more focused way. Preparations are underway to set-up a programme for kids under the banner of CHINGRU (Saplings).