ENLIGHT SALEM

Deepika, student of the Govt higher secondary school, located in Kullampatty. Panamarathupatty block, Salem, scored 52% in 10th board exam and is pursuing course in Bio-Computers in the same school. She had scored 48% in English, 51% in Tamil, 51% in Maths, 57% in Science and 53% in Social Science. Her total score was 260 out of 500.

Deepika lives with her father Paramasivam aged 40, mother Rani aged 37 and younger brother Kumar aged 5 years. Her parents are daily wage workers. She along with her father and mother are infected with HIV/ AIDS and undergoing ART treatment. In one instance, Deepika had stopped taking ART tablets resulting in drastic decrease of her CD 4 count and putting her to risk. On learning about this the Enlight team immediately contacted her over phone and counselled her.

In Salem, Enlight engages with children infected/ affected by HIV/AIDS. Like other social groups these families do not live in one location and are spread over and therefore reaching any of the family in need is challenging. One of the helpful actions was providing timely counselling support to families/individual thereby helping them out of depression and suicidal tendency. Hence, the team began e-counselling over phone and this was quite effective.

Through e-counselling the team was able to provide support 24x7. This also immensely helped those who did’nt have the means to travel seeking counselling and those who were reluctant for face to face counselling. The e-counselling assisted the team in convincing and persuading Deepika to continue with her medicines. The team also mobilised and provided essential nutrition supplements to the family.

They then focussed on improving Deepika’s educational competencies as she had scored ‘C’ grade in all subjects in the CCA. Based on a plan, Deepika was linked with Sarniya and a Kutty teacher. Ms. Sarniya is an under-graduate student (Bachelor of Physics) from Deepika’s neighbourhood. Gradually following the joint efforts of the Kutty Teacher and Sarniya, Deepika began showing results. She began showing improvement in English, Science and Maths. She also became an active participant in all meetings and events organised by project team. Her parents encouraged her in her studies and were happy observing her gradual improvement. In the second CCA Deepika moved from ‘C’ to ‘B’ grade in all the subjects. Deepika aimed to do well in her 10th exams and scored 52%. Her parents are quite happy with her result as they had never imagined their daughter to have appeared for her 10th exam. Deepika aspires to become a teacher and wants to provide a secured life for her family.