The Fifth (and last) Bishkek Support Group for Parents of HIV+ Children,

On the last day of May 2015, six parents, twelve children, and seven AIDS Center staff met for the fifth and last Support Group for Parents with HIV+ children in Chui. The parents and HIV+ children (and their siblings) were the same ones who have come to almost every session – and by this last meeting they all greeted each other by name and with pleasant familiarity.
At these parents’ request, one of our National AIDS Center lawyers, Jildyz, came to give a presentation and answer questions about rights and laws as they relate to People Living with HIV in Kyrgyzstan. To my happy surprise – our other (newer) Center lawyer came just to listen and learn! Also, another doctor from the City Aids Centers also came JUST to learn, AND she brought her own two children to play with our project kids! Lastly, an administrative staff member (with her two kids) and the Natl AIDS Center secretary also came JUST TO HELP. On top of the already amazing effort of our constant psychologist-facilitator, Galina, this huge turnout of staff really made for a compassionate display on the part of the AIDS Centers towards their patients, a major goal of this project (specifically, “connecting and building relationships between patients and providers”).
The past four meetings saw a group “coffee break” in the AIDS Center conference room on the fifth floor, and then the parents would stay there for a private session and the children would move to a conference room on a different floor. We have used conference rooms on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor (depending on which health organization, each on its own floor with its own strangle-held conference room) buckles to my pleas for a few hours of use that month. I’m not exaggerating – this is really an hours-long begging, and being referred up the chain of command for more begging, process for each meeting. This last meeting was the most difficult to secure a conference room for the children – the first and third floor conference rooms were supposedly being used for trainings (though they were empty on the actual day) and the second floor, the Hepatitis Research Department was, like always, extremely generous in offering their conference room and inviting me to have tea in their laboratory for a few hours, but, in the end, they could not find they key (probably taken by a construction worker, they said). Finally, the first floor, the Association of Village Health Committees department, gave me permission to use an always-locked auditorium (which I don’t actually think is under their jurisdiction anyways) but it was as inconvenient as it gets… SO – the children’s play area, this time, was the 5th floor (National AIDS Center) Hallway. I set it up pretty nice though!
Below are a few pictures from this last meeting. Like the previous meetings, there aren’t many pictures, and none which show the patients’ or their families’ faces, because this is a sensitive population which deserves privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality.
At the end of the meeting several parents approached me to express their appreciation for the project, and one (our most outspoken) mother even expressed that she wanted to continue the Support Group without my and Galina’s facilitation. Galina and I assured her that the City AIDS Center would support her in terms of resources and a meeting place, and I really hope it does continue by these families’ own doings. That would be a wonderful, sustainable, result of this Peace Corps project. Also, another mother, one who has since started taking ARV medication (she is also HIV+, but had refused treatment until her involvement in this support group) told me that she didn’t know that their were other parents like her, or children like hers. She said that, now, she has hope, and also people who she can talk to.