As Nepal gears up to observe World AIDS Day Wednesday, a group of women are struggling to survive after prejudices against the disease forced the closure of a manufacturing unit they were running.

Seventeen women in Makwanpur district of central Nepal, diagnosed HIV positive or with AIDS, had received a fresh lease of hope when they came together about two years ago to form the Makwanpur Women's Group, which started awareness campaigns about HIV/AIDS as well as income-generating programmes.

With the help of NGO Action Aid, the group set up a small unit to produce spices and stationery.

However, the initiative received its deathblow in April when prejudice and misconceptions about the disease brought sales to a halt and forced the unit to close down, the Himalayan Times reported. 

Group members said people stopped buying their products for fear that the virus would infect them too.

It was not only the uneducated who shied away, group members said, but even the educated.

When they went to government officials to register their organisation, they were treated badly, the women told the daily. 

Forced to close down the manufacturing unit, the women are now saddled with large quantities of unsold goods.

Besides losing their means of livelihood, the closure has dealt the women a psychological blow as well.

"Instead of encouraging our attempt, society is trying to drive us away," one of them was quoted as saying.

--Indo-Asian News Service