When her husband set off to work at the office of an Indian tea company in Mumbai, Mathura Devi Kunwar thought he would come back with savings. He came back infected with HIV.
Plenty of Accham's men migrated to India for seasonal work and returned home healthy, so there was no reason for Mathura Devi to suspect anything. In fact, she hadn't even heard much about AIDS.

Once she found out she was HIV positive, she joined the Social Volunteers Against AIDS (SoVAA) in Achham and today she is one of the most dedicated activists helping raise awareness about the diease in her community.

When Mathura Devi's husband died five years ago, she was determined not to let the disease destroy her life and those of her neighbours' whose husbands also worked in India. "I realised this is my social service. HIV/AIDS is an evil disease. There is no cure. My village would be destroyed by it. If I have it today, others will have it tomorrow. So I became a volunteer," she told us.

Accham villagers began to note that many of the men who went to Mumbai for work came home only to die. When they found out it was AIDS, the sick men and their families were stigmatised. Save the Children-UK started the volunteer campaign in Achham because it is a district with one of the highest infection rates in the country.

Today, the volunteers do all the planning and implemention of AIDS awareness activities themselves. They battle social stigma and ostracisation, providing care and support to families with infected members.

These days, Mathura Devi is busy taking care of other community members, and also has to raise her four children. The children faced discrimination from other village kids and they were taunted because t

eir father died of AIDS. But not any more.
"Previously, infected people were teased, and treated with disgust. Some even said that if they were creamted, the smoke would infect others so they were wrapped in plastic and buried," recalls Mathura Devi.

Mathura Devi is very clear about what her community still needs: awareness, medicine, counseling, access to blood tests, and the orphans need a shelter. Her children dread the day when they will lose their mother too. But Mathura Devi consoles them: " My work is my medicine. I still feel like I won't die. I am very happy. But even if I die, my community will survive, and so will my children."

(Sraddha Basnyat)