Bengaluru: In the year 1997, Daksha Patel, hailing from Gujarat, was diagnosed with HIV.
The doctors informed her that she would not live beyond 6 months. The whole world came crashing down, but she did not lose heart.
Instead of lamenting what had befallen her, she started an organisation to take care of such HIV patients.
Her organisation is called Gujarat State Network of People Living with HIV AIDS (GSNP +). It takes care of all such patients.
Till now, it has taken care of more than 74000 people and assists them in whatever way possible.
She says, "My family shifted from Saurashtra in Gujarat to Surat. In 1997 after marriage, my reports confirmed the worst fears. Hearing about the severity of the disease, darkness had spread in my life. I decided to get people like me out of this despair and in collaboration with HIV positive fellow patients established the 'Gujarat State Network of People Living with HIV' in 2003. Today, we have grown internationally as well.”
It wasn’t that she did not face any hurdles during the initial stages. But she persevered hard to sustain herself.
She adds, “I got a lot of support from the family. My husband and I moved forward. Today, the struggle of my life is not only mine, but for the whole community.”
It is interesting and heartening to note that she has proved the predictions of the doctors wrong. They had said she would not live beyond six months, but she has been leading a happy and healthy life even now, in the service of others.
Today, her organisation makes women aware of the disease and how to prevent it. The government too has taken note of her contribution to the society and provides free treatment to patients.
It is in this way that she has been helping the patients to the best of her ability.