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Sunita was eighteen when her marriage was arranged. Tragically, her husband, already infected with HIV, passed on the infection to her. In the next two years not only did Sunita watch him slowly die, she also gave birth to an HIV-positive baby who died after nine months.

Sunita, rejected by her own family and her husband’s, was only allowed to sleep in the passageway of the house and not permitted to use the bathroom facilities. Her belongings were taken away and she was eventually thrown out. She went to stay with her brother who found it very difficult to accept her-such is the stigma and fear of HIV in India.

While Africa suffers most from HIV, other parts of the world that long-ignored it are now discovering they did so at their peril. According to a National Intelligence Council report released in September, by 2010 the number of infected people in China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia will grow to an estimated fifty million to seventy-five million, up from the current estimate of fourteen million to twenty-three million.

India: at the Crest of the AIDS Wave. Of these five “next-wave countries,” India is predicted to have twenty to twenty-five million AIDS victims by 2010-the highest estimate for any nation. And yet, with cool detachment, the report calls that “A Big Problem but Probably not Devastating” because “these individuals will remain diffused among very large populations… Twenty-five million infected Indians would reflect [only] a four percent adult prevalence rate.”

The National Aids Commission of India says HIV represents the most serious public health problem in India. They say it is spreading from urban to rural areas (India is seventy-five percent rural) and from the high-risk to the general population. The reasons: heterosexual transmission, intravenous drug use, migration of labor, low literacy levels resulting in low awareness, sexually-transmitted diseases and reproductive tract infections.

On May 3, 2002, U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot told the Indian Parliament that India, with 3.8 million people infected with HIV, is second only to South Africa’s 4.7 million. However, Mrs. Daisy Dasgupta, the director of Oasis India in Mumbai (Bombay), a ministry to those infected and affected by HIV, believes the figure is closer to 5 million. “Many cases go unreported and people die on the streets with no cause of death recorded,” she said.

Mumbai is the most infected city in India. Estimates indicate that as many as four percent are already infected by HIV-this means 600,000 people live with an incurable disease.

Local ministry responds to HIV care need. Oasis India is an indigenous Christian ministry that did not start as an outreach to HIV victims, but simply to help the poor in Mumbai and Bangalore. The ministry rescued girls trapped in prostitution, provided day care for street children and vocational training for older children, ran health and awareness programs for the community, held literacy classes for children and adults, and offered computer education to those who showed interest and ability.

But what Oasis India found pervasive -and most disheartening-was the specter of HIV: widowed and homeless women ostracized by family and friends, orphaned children, and children in vulnerable circumstances at risk of infection. So in 1998 Oasis India established Purnata Bhavan (House of Wholeness), an HIV care facility three hours drive from Mumbai, far enough to ensure that those in care do not easily get drawn back to their previous circumstances.

The need to provide shelter, nutrition, hygiene, counseling and the gospel to those infected and affected by HIV prompted the vision of Purnata Bhavan.

Sunita eventually came in contact with a local church that referred her to Purnata Bhavan. She stayed for two years during which she was cared for and counseled about how, with Christ’s help, she could make the most of her life.

Sunita now works as one of the residential staff caring for the children and teaches tailoring-a skill she learned at Purnata Bhavan. The staff stayed in touch with her family and Sunita is now a welcome guest back home, able to see her niece and nephew regularly. Oasis India helped Sunita mount a legal challenge against her in-laws to get her property returned.

Mrs. Dasgupta notes that HIV victims come from desperately poor and traumatized backgrounds. “Their emotional outbursts and street competitiveness is a major challenge to our staff in maintaining harmony,” admitted Mrs. Dasgupta. She does her best to screen potential staff not just for nursing abilities, but also on how well they handle stress.

Vocational training has been a key to preparing people for jobs. Training is given in tailoring, screen printing, candle making and jewelry making. After training, participants can work for the Oasis Benevolent Foundation, a sister for-profit organization set up to sell the goods that the women make.

Local churches assist adults and children to re-integrate into society, and children maintain their education through on-site tutoring before they return to school.

Partnerships facilitate care expansion. This holistic outreach to HIV victims is attracting attention and therefore more patients. “The rate of growth of HIV in India is so rapid that we are constantly challenged to see how we can make a difference beyond the sphere of Purnata Bhavan,” said Mrs. Dasgupta. “In the last two months, three of us have had the privilege of providing training to other organizations that want to develop their work among those living with HIV.” Purnata Bhavan receives referrals from both NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and the government.

Nearly one-third of Oasis India’s income is raised locally, and Partners International is helping with medical equipment, surgical supplies and vocational training equipment, and hopes to build a health care facility and purchase a vehicle to transport women and children to and from Mumbai.

Oasis has just entered into a cooperative relationship with Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), a network of Christian Hospitals, to develop new levels of care. “This partnership allows us to have access to the wealth of experience of EHA and will help ensure that the new health care facility will be most appropriate for the needs of those we are caring for,” said Mrs. Dasgupta.

Other indigenous Christian agencies are working among AIDS patients, including CANA (Christian AIDS/HIV National Alliance) and the Christian Medical Association of India.

In the future, Mrs. Dasgupta wants to expand to areas such as Himachal Pradesh in the far north of India. HIV has spread there through migrants and truck drivers. With virtually no Christian presence (.09 percent Christian) and a center of Hindu pilgrimage, such areas are ripe for a ministry of Christian compassion to reach those afflicted with the modern-day equivalent of leprosy.

Steven Downey is vice president of communications and marketing at Partners International, Spokane, Washington.