MSPN

MSPN is the organisation which I have been placed with in Patan. It is a charity which supports children (usually under the age of ten) who have HIV. Up to 16 children live at the home along with a parent or relative. Here they receive medication, nutritionally balanced meals, get taken to regular hospital check-ups, all free of charge. They stay as long as need be to ensure that their condition has improved and stabilised as far as possible (normally several months), and receive follow-up once discharged home. Almost all of the children have other illnesses alongside HIV, normally Hepatitis and Tuberculosis, so their little bodies are really struggling. The difference in them from when they arrive to when they leave is astounding. Some were extremely malnourished and as soon as they put weight on you would hardly recognise them as the same children. It's lovely to see them grow more confident and cheeky as time goes by. When they are feeling better it's easy to forget that they have HIV. Because of this it came as a shock when one of the little babies suddenly died after contracting pneumonia. His mother was only 18 and his father already dead. She was at the home the day after it happened. I've never seen someone look so full of despair. Her baby was the one spark of light in a life already so full of shadows. It was heart-breaking to see her.