Social Welfare relocates neglected HIV boy

The Department of Social Welfare has initiated processes to relocate the seven-year-old Kindergarten pupil neglected by his family for contracting HIV.

Announcing the move, the New Juaben Municipal Director of Department of Social Welfare Evelyn Bansah described the seven-year old’s situation as pathetic, noting it had been worsened by poverty and ignorance hence their intervention.

The department, she said is working assiduously to get an HIV/AIDS caregiver to admit the 7-year-old.

Shirking responsibilities

The family of the boy in Koforidua Effiduase in the Eastern region neglected him because he is HIV positive. He contracted the deadly virus from his mother through child birth.

Investigations by Starr News indicate that family members have shirked their responsibility of taking care of the 7-year-old and his two other siblings who are currently staying with their aged grandmother.

The mother of the children who is an HIV patient, abandoned the children and disappeared from the family house years ago and has since not returned. The family believe the mother of the children is dead.

Meanwhile, the father of the three children has also disappeared.

Since family members realized the mother of the three children had HIV/AIDS, they have dumped and discriminated against the children.

Due to financial difficulties, the grandmother had been unable to send the young HIV/AIDS patient to the hospital to be put on anti-retroviral drugs.

It took the intervention of a community health nurse, Dorothy Amaninbea, who got wind of the situation and took the children for HIV testing.

The results showed that the two elder siblings were HIV negative, however, the 7-year-old tested positive.

He has since been put on anti-retroviral drugs but in a poor living condition. Stigmatization

Reports indicate that the 7-year-old is being stigmatized in the community and in his school following announcement by his auntie in the school that he was HIV positive.

The auntie reportedly stormed the school to inform his teacher that, the boy is HIV positive hence should be handled with care.

Since then, the information has gone viral in School. The teacher of the victim is alleged to have been stigmatizing against the pupil, an allegation the school has denied.

Speaking to Starr News, the New Juaben Municipal Director of Ghana Education Service, Mr.Kwame Ofori said, GES will investigate the allegation of stigmatization against the pupil and act accordingly.