Veasna smiles again
Located in the crowded small village
after traveling on the unpaved, small, muddy road, there are many big
houses with grocery store setup in almost every house. A medium house that is
well fenced, it’s Veasna’s house (NAME CHANGE). “Please come in, sorry our
house is small and a bit messy,” said Veasna’s wife.
Veasna is now thirty-six years old and he lives with HIV. He experienced difficulties in life, especially discrimination and struggling to sustain his family’s livelihood. Recently, things have changed for the better for him as his whole family. There are no more concerns for him from now on in terms of generating income to support the family’s needs. He shared, “My wife also has HIV, but my only one daughter is safe. We now live in peace and are hopeful. World Vision gives us hope and helps end our struggle in life. We have hope and I have learned a lot on how to earn more money for my lovely family.”
He is sitting on the wooden bed, and sadly said, “My family was suffering from discrimination from neighbors when they found out we have HIV. They didn’t allow their children to play with my daughter, and they despised me with both words and actions.” He added, “At first I felt depressed and discouraged, but later on I thought I must try hard to live longer, especially for my only child, she’s all I have.”
Veasna seemed addict to drinking alcohol and smoking everyday; he confessed, “I was a person who really was addicted to smoking before. I smoked two packs a day, and I drank alcohol from one to one and half liters a day every evening. I enjoyed drinking alone and never caused violence, but it made my wife sad. I gave it all up because I think it’s useless to drink, especially when I need to focus on taking care of my health.”
Veasna has been involved in many activities and trainings of World Vision for years, since 2007. World Vision staff always conduct home visit and advise him how to live with better hygiene, cleaned environment, HIV and AIDS discussion. He said, “I was never absent in any trainings conducted by World Vision, the session that really inspired me is Micro-Enterprise Development, raising chicken. I immediately practice what I learned when I returned home. I see a very good result and now I can earn from that.”
Model of Learning (MoL) is a project of World Vision, the objectives of MoL is to Strengthening Community Based Organization (CBO), Micro-Enterprise Development (MED), and Documentations in terms of CBO and MED. MoL team has been working very hard in the communities by training and empowering community people to take ownership and learn through Micro-Enterprise to improve their living conditions. Veasna smiled, “I thank World Vision that created MoL and came to save us here. I can say this gives me a big change in terms of earning better income for my family; it has given me a chance to have a dream to open a big farm in the near future, so I can help myself and other villagers.”
Veasna is considered as an active saving group leader of the People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) team, and he’s an open-minded person. He is a curious one in learning new things. He grinned, “I remembered that there is a formula for a Micro-Enterprise Development, which focuses on strategic marketing, seeking out the customers, and searching out our competitors. I have noted what I have learned to apply for a better livelihood, and I have World Vision staff who I always consult with and they encouraged me.”
Ratana, 34, a farmer and a saving group member said, “I know Veasna since we were young kids and we were also neighbors. I considered him as my brother. I see he has a huge change; especially his living condition is now better. He is an honesty person and all the savings group members trust him, and he takes care of all the group members as his family members. He always advises me to take Opportunity Infection/ Anti-Retro Virus (OI/ARV) and to get OI/ARV monthly. He always consider other PLHA problems as common problem.”
Other PLHAs who are sitting nearby Ratana shared the same words, “Veasna always shares what he has learned from any trainings. He’s really happy to support and advises us to practice in reality what the theories we learned in order to improve living conditions. He is a good leader for us and he is very active in development work. We think he is a good model for us to learn, and practice.”
Note: Use of this story was granted permission by the storyteller, Veasna (NAME CHANGE). He would like others to learn from this story and he would like to advocate finding justice for people live with HIV-AIDS who suffers from all forms of discriminations. The storyteller’s name and all names in the story were changed due to it’s a sensitive story and we would like to hide his identity.
Veasna is now thirty-six years old and he lives with HIV. He experienced difficulties in life, especially discrimination and struggling to sustain his family’s livelihood. Recently, things have changed for the better for him as his whole family. There are no more concerns for him from now on in terms of generating income to support the family’s needs. He shared, “My wife also has HIV, but my only one daughter is safe. We now live in peace and are hopeful. World Vision gives us hope and helps end our struggle in life. We have hope and I have learned a lot on how to earn more money for my lovely family.”
He is sitting on the wooden bed, and sadly said, “My family was suffering from discrimination from neighbors when they found out we have HIV. They didn’t allow their children to play with my daughter, and they despised me with both words and actions.” He added, “At first I felt depressed and discouraged, but later on I thought I must try hard to live longer, especially for my only child, she’s all I have.”
Veasna seemed addict to drinking alcohol and smoking everyday; he confessed, “I was a person who really was addicted to smoking before. I smoked two packs a day, and I drank alcohol from one to one and half liters a day every evening. I enjoyed drinking alone and never caused violence, but it made my wife sad. I gave it all up because I think it’s useless to drink, especially when I need to focus on taking care of my health.”
Veasna has been involved in many activities and trainings of World Vision for years, since 2007. World Vision staff always conduct home visit and advise him how to live with better hygiene, cleaned environment, HIV and AIDS discussion. He said, “I was never absent in any trainings conducted by World Vision, the session that really inspired me is Micro-Enterprise Development, raising chicken. I immediately practice what I learned when I returned home. I see a very good result and now I can earn from that.”
Model of Learning (MoL) is a project of World Vision, the objectives of MoL is to Strengthening Community Based Organization (CBO), Micro-Enterprise Development (MED), and Documentations in terms of CBO and MED. MoL team has been working very hard in the communities by training and empowering community people to take ownership and learn through Micro-Enterprise to improve their living conditions. Veasna smiled, “I thank World Vision that created MoL and came to save us here. I can say this gives me a big change in terms of earning better income for my family; it has given me a chance to have a dream to open a big farm in the near future, so I can help myself and other villagers.”
Veasna is considered as an active saving group leader of the People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) team, and he’s an open-minded person. He is a curious one in learning new things. He grinned, “I remembered that there is a formula for a Micro-Enterprise Development, which focuses on strategic marketing, seeking out the customers, and searching out our competitors. I have noted what I have learned to apply for a better livelihood, and I have World Vision staff who I always consult with and they encouraged me.”
Ratana, 34, a farmer and a saving group member said, “I know Veasna since we were young kids and we were also neighbors. I considered him as my brother. I see he has a huge change; especially his living condition is now better. He is an honesty person and all the savings group members trust him, and he takes care of all the group members as his family members. He always advises me to take Opportunity Infection/ Anti-Retro Virus (OI/ARV) and to get OI/ARV monthly. He always consider other PLHA problems as common problem.”
Other PLHAs who are sitting nearby Ratana shared the same words, “Veasna always shares what he has learned from any trainings. He’s really happy to support and advises us to practice in reality what the theories we learned in order to improve living conditions. He is a good leader for us and he is very active in development work. We think he is a good model for us to learn, and practice.”
Note: Use of this story was granted permission by the storyteller, Veasna (NAME CHANGE). He would like others to learn from this story and he would like to advocate finding justice for people live with HIV-AIDS who suffers from all forms of discriminations. The storyteller’s name and all names in the story were changed due to it’s a sensitive story and we would like to hide his identity.
-Ends-
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