The Bless Foundation, a home for homeless children with HIV in Mumbai
On World AIDS Day, which falls each year on 1 December, the story Rev Reji Thomas, a Kerala native, highlights the plight of HIV-positive Indian children who are often abandoned by their own relatives due to social stigma. Today, his Bless Foundation, founded in 2009, cares for 28 minors, who not only found a refuge, but also the opportunity for treatment and education.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – For more than 15 years, Rev Reji Thomas, a Protestant pastor, has turned his home in Panvel, near Navi Mumbai, into a safe haven for abandoned HIV-positive children.
His Bless Foundation is now home to 28 children with HIV, all living under the same roof with the clergyman, his wife Minnie, and their two children, Justin and Jenny, aged 27 and 26. For Rev Thomas, they are one big family, and all the children call him “Papa Reji”.
Reji Thomas's story begins in 1989, when he left Kerala and moved to Mumbai. After trying various jobs, he decided to devote himself to theological studies and social service, helping street children, caring for the abandoned sick, accompanying them to the hospital so they could receive dignified care.
The Bless Foundation was born after a life-changing encounter in 2008. During a visit to DY Patil Hospital, he met a 12-year-old girl, a seriously ill orphan from Nepal.
“She was skin and bones, with no strength left. She had AIDS and was dying," he said. The little girl looked at him and asked for a bowl of noodles. Thomas promised her he would return.
The next day, he arrived with food, but the girl had died during the night. That episode affected him deeply and made him realise that his mission would be to help HIV-positive children in India.
The following year, he received a desperate call from a centre for women with AIDS that no longer had space to accommodate four children.
No facility was willing to take them in, so Thomas thought about setting up a facility with a caregiver. But when it became known that the children were HIV-positive, no one wanted to care for them.
It was then that he decided to take them home, three boys and a girl who changed his family's life forever.
His wife, Minnie, a nurse, is the backbone of the Bless Foundation. She monitors the children's health, ensures they are following their antiretroviral therapy regularly, cooks for everyone, and offers emotional support. To them, she is simply “mummy”.
According to Rev Thomas, abandoned, HIV-positive minors remain one of the most vulnerable groups in India. Many are orphans, others are chased away by relatives who fear social stigma or infection. On the streets, they are exploited, lack access to healthcare, and suffer discrimination.
With the arrival of new children, the family had to make some choices. Today, the Bless Foundation primarily takes in boys between the ages of 5 and 16.
The 28 minors, aged between four and eighteen, attend school. Once they reach adulthood, they will be transferred to other facilities or helped to find employment.
Most of the children in Reji Thomas's home have lost their parents to HIV. In some cases, the mothers are still alive but unable to care for their children. “In some cases, HIV-infected parents on their deathbed leave their kids with us,” he said.
Some sick children arrive when the disease is advanced, but Thomas and Minnie manage to reduce the symptoms with treatment and care.
Their only fear is losing a child. It happened only once. “Noor was just six years old. He had HIV and tuberculosis, and the infection spread across his body,” Reji .
Today, after three decades of work, the clergyman looks at his adopted children with the same sense of responsibility as a father.
“Being HIV-positive doesn't mean that their life has to be cut short. They can live as long as any normal person,” he said. “With love and care, everything is possible. These children all call me 'Papa Reji',” he noted. “I’m not someone special – I'm just a father looking after his children.”
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04/05/2019 15:38
