Ahi’s Story

Ahi is married with two children, both he and his wife are HIV+ as is their youngest son. They were the first patients who joined Project Homecare (PHC) when our program started in 2004, not long after Ahi’s wife died of AIDS in mid 2005, leaving two children behind for Ahi to look after.

Ahi worked hard catching fish to earn a living until he became too sick and weak to work and had to take out a loan to support his family, the interest was very high and he started using the money we gave him monthly for rice to pay the interest on the loan.

Project Homecare began visiting him every week to monitor his health- Ahi was very sick; his skin had turned black and he lay everyday on a mat on the floor of his small thatched home, with many abscesses on his head, back, groin and legs.

At this time he tested positive for Tuberculosis (TB) a common disease that AIDS patients acquire, he started TB medication but stopped after two weeks because the medications were too strong and he didn’t have enough to eat.

Ahi’s daughter, Phana who is only ten years old carried a heavy burden for her family. She couldn’t play with other kids as normal and often missed school to look after her father, did all the house work, went to the forest to find firewood to sell and also look after her six year old brother Borey, who is HIV+, very sick and malnourished. No one in the family would help them, Ahi got to the point of desperation where he gave his son away to be looked after by an orphanage in another province because he could no longer care for him.

To release him from the burden of his debt, we helped him to pay it off, along with a small share from his sisters and Ahi himself.

With a lot of encouragement, love and care from our Homecare team, Ahi started to get better week by week, we were able to increase the amount of money he received for rice so that had enough for him and his family. Ahi started taking the TB medicine again and has also began ARV Therapy (Anti-Retro Viral medication) through our ARV Transfer Service.

Our help and care for Ahi had touched the hearts of the village leader and other villagers, they helped Ahi with some rice and food while we are not there.

Now he is very healthy and strong, his debt is paid off, his son Borey is able to live at home with his family and Phana no longer needs to carry the family burdens alone and is able to go to school like a normal ten year old girl.

Ahi is doing so well that he now able to start a small income generation project selling eggs to support himself and his family while he is strong enough.