“In spite of all that I did to escape from her, my mother tracked me down.”
Manjula (not her real name) told us her tale, as she sat in an AIDS clinic in a suburb of Mumbai. To look at her now, it was unbelievable to think that she was HIV+ and had once been condemned to a life of slavery and poverty.
Manjula was a slim, beautiful-looking woman in her late 30s or early 40s, wearing a sari in which the colours danced in the light. She had been born into a poor Hindu family who eked out a living in a rural village. Her father had deserted the family in search of work in the big city and her mother had been left to bring her, and her brothers and sisters, up as best she could. By the time she was eleven years old, Manjula had become a drain on the family resources and she had been sold into slavery by her mother.
Her new ‘owner’ introduced her to his family of ‘girls’ and she started on the slow decline into prostitution and drugs. The outcome was that she became HIV+ and saw herself being condemned to a life with no future. However, Manjula was one of those rare people who manage to rise above their circumstances and she managed to escape from the people who were manipulating her. She was afraid to return home to her mother and somehow made her way to Bangalore, where she was put in touch with a Christian charity.
Discovering Christ gave meaning to her life. With love and care her life gradually assumed normality, but after some time her new-found peace was rudely shattered when her mother tracked her down and, in a drunken state, accosted her and attempted to abduct her. Manjula rejected her mother and fled to the Mumbai area, where she hopes her mother will never find her.
Knowing the pressures she was under the Christian charity put her in touch with a church in the Mumbai area. In her new congregation she discovered a widow, with two young children, a girl of 11 and a boy of 10. The widow was dying of AIDS but had arranged with the Church pastor that when she died her house would be left to the church – on condition the church looked after her family (who were also HIV+). Shortly after Manjula arrived, the widow died and she took on the responsibility for acting as a surrogate mother to the young children. The Church was surprised she had done this.
As it turned out, this was not only fulfilling for Manjula but a lesson to the Church as it was trying to come to terms with the fact that some of its members were HIV+ and some had contracted full-blown AIDS. How did they deal with that in a Christian context? The words of Jesus came to them: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt 25:40). They then realised that this was part of their role – showing care and compassion to those who suffer. Manjula was at home, as part of their family.
Robin G K Arnott (EMMS International)
