Pumped by your heart to the tips of your arms and your legs

She’s not sure whereabouts in Burma she is from, because both her parents died when she was very young. She knows that she left her native land at some point, because her grandmother raised her in the forest somewhere near Bangkok, but she was an abusive drunk. She tried to tell her grandmother to stop drinking, but she would never listen to her. She knew she had to leave. Five months ago some relatives took her north, to the border at Mae Sot, where she crossed over into Burma and began to live with a new family who didn’t have any children of their own. They told her they would be her parents from now on. She was happy for the first time in a long while. But then she began to feel sick. She was tired all the time, and she didn’t want to eat. She found some strange lesions and ulcers on her skin. Her new family decided they should take her across the river into Thailand and seek help at the Mae Tao Clinic. When she got there, the medics did lots of tests and gave her some medicine. She felt a wee bit better for a while. But when she asked for her parents, she was told they had gone, back to Myawaddy, across the river. Without her. The tests had confirmed what they had suspected – she has HIV. Who will take care of her now?

I spent time with this beautiful, but tiny and frail girl today, and she told me her story. She is 14, but looked no older than 10. She lives in a home run by an NGO here in Mae Sot, with 13 other women and girls who are also HIV positive. Her adoptive parents deserted her when they discovered she had the virus, because they were scared that they would contract it from her. Her future looks bleak, as she is not receiving any treatment for her disease; there is not enough money here to provide all the HIV patients with vital Anti Retroviral medication. Most days she goes to a local migrant school, which is one of many schools that children from Burma go to here on the border, because they cannot go to Thai schools. Her favourite parts of the school day are writing, playing and nap time. She is always tired. 

She does not really understand the enormity of her condition, of what having HIV means, but friendly, caring faces from the Mae Tao counselling department visit her often, and in time she will begin to understand the reality of her future. At the moment though, she is feeling well, and she is happy playing with the other young girls that live at her home, when she is not too tired. She told me that when she grows up, she wants to be a sales woman. 

I met another woman today, she is 32 and found out she had HIV 9 months ago. She came from Bangkok for treatment because she had Tuberculosis. While receiving treatment for TB, she tested positive for HIV. Her first husband, and the father of her children, died of HIV, and her second husband recently left her and remarried because he didn’t want a sick wife, so now she lives in the same home as the young girl. Her 11 year old daughter is now living in Mae Sot at a boarding house, and her 15 year old will be here soon, her father, in the Mon state in Burma, cannot afford to look after him anymore now that she cannot work to send them money. She too is not receiving any treatment for her HIV. It has taken her a long time to come to terms with her disease; she used to be very angry. But our councillors have been visiting her regularly and now she is much calmer, and is slowly coming to terms with the prospects of her future.

Médecins Sans Frontières closed their Anti Retroviral program in the Mae Sot area in 2010. Mae Tao Clinic has taken on the 46 HIV positive patients that MSF were treating, and have been providing them with medication while pursuing measures to assure they will continue to receive treatment in the future. New patients that meet the criteria for ARV’s are referred to the Mae Sot Hospital for treatment, but unfortunately this does not guarantee that they will receive treatment, as the Thai program is already full. Patients are accepted only as “vacancies” occur.  

Everyone here is so sick. But there are never enough resources to go around. 

Here is some information about the theraputic arts programme these women are involved with 
http://spinningtop.org/saw-pure-futures/


You can buy one of their handmade purses here, income generated from their crafts goes straight to the women
http://spinningtop.org/purses/