I’ve never been one for road trips. I always end up feeling claustrophobic (I always get stuck with the middle seat since I’m the smallest), car sick, and if I’m lucky, I’ll sleep the whole way there. But I could not refuse to tag along when the HIV/AIDs and Disability Rights Unite of HRLN arranged a trip to Dharamsala, located in the state of Himachal Pradesh, to conduct a training camp. Driving time? 14 hours. Passengers? 6. Windy, mountainous roads in a foggy atmosphere? Check. Although the journey was arduous, I’m glad I went. We had a day off work, which we took to explore McLeaod Gang, the political headquarters of the Tibetan Government in exile. We visited the Dalai Lama’s residence and explored the attached temple where we observed Buddhist monks engaged in religious debates.

Our residence was interesting as we stayed in an Ashram , which also doubled as a an NGO catering to the needs of people with disability called CORD, funded by the Canadian CIDA (it was interesting to see all the Canadian flags on the ashram, and the ashram’s vehicles.) During our time there, we ate in a communal kitchen which only served vegetarian fare, ate with our hands, washed our own cutlery, and removed our shoes whenever entering a room. I treasure this authentic experience.

Dharamsala, like most settlements in Himachal Pradesh, is sparsely populated. As such, garnering support for the creation of an HIV/AIDS network has been difficult due to issue of confidentiality. Many communities here are linked by inter-marriage and large kinships structures, indicating that HIV/AIDS disclosure will certainly entail social ostracism by the larger community. Moreover, although this state is considered by the Indian government to ,prevalence must be quite strong in this area since many of the men are migrants, and part of the army, which comprise strong HIV/AIDS risk groups in India. This discrepancy was apparent in the number of attendees at the HIV/AIDs session. Although we had planned for 30-40 attendees, we only received 9.

I was initially disappointed with this low turnout, but when voicing this concern to the senior advisor, she advised that having 9 people speak openly about HIV/AIDS in this area was a coup, since they only had around 3 participants last year. I have to remind myself to keep things in context, and realize that although change may be slow, its important to focus on the glimmer of hope I observed while I was there. This included talk by one of the participants to set up a network for positive people in Himachal Pradesh which would be able to advocate for PHA’s on an ongoing basis. This is crucial since often times, access to treatment hinges on receiving a government supplement for bus fare, (value of no more than 50 cents CAD) which must be consistenly addressed.
Also interesting is that even though our organization could in theory set up a network, this would not be beneficial to the overall struggle to address HIV/AIDS discrimination in Himachal Pradesh, as it is not coming from the grassroots level.

This week, Arlene and I completed a case study regarding maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS which represents a co-initiative between the HIV/AIDs and Reproductive Rights unit of HRLN. While finding information regarding maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS was difficult, it was even more trying to find a concrete example of a woman who had died due to maternal mortality CAUSED by HIV/AIDS. This is because often times, an autopsy will identify a cause of death as a ‘heart attack’ and not maternally related, when in fact, it was due to a botched abortion. Further complicating the matter is that when HIV/AIDS renders a women more susceptible to opportunistic infections such as TB, it is still not recorded as a maternal death, nor one caused by HIV/AIDS, though these are the antecedent factors. Moreover, while we could find some statistical evidence regarding the HIV/AIDS maternal mortality nexus, it was difficult to find a filed case, i.e the ‘facts’ that our case study was to revolve around.

Despite this difficulty, we finished the case study, which will be used as a training tool by a partner organization which focuses on maternal mortality. Arlene and I are looking forward to putting together some brochures regarding maternal mortality, given that this seems like a prevalent, though invisible issue in India.