Subash Amatya, 27, contracted HIV as a youngster experimenting with drugs. Today he has kicked the habit and works as a medical volunteer at Kritmala Ashram.

The Kathmandu-based ashram was established just four months ago by Nava Kiran Plus, an NGO providing support and treatment to HIV positive people in Nepal, with the help of the British embassy. 

Nava Kiran Plus is headed by 31-year-old Rajeev Kafle, who also brings out a monthly newsletter, HIV Post, which focuses on issues that need to be advocated both in Nepal and abroad.

Amatya is one of the volunteers caring for 15 people currently staying in the ashram. All of them are HIV positive with some having contracted TB too as a secondary infection.

"In Nepal, there is no care and support available for people with HIV," says Kafle. "We thought that instead of letting people die on streets, we should gather them in one place to care for them."

The HIV Post, brought out Wednesday, on the occasion of World AIDS Day, describes the aspirations of Amatya and other youngsters like him. 

"I want to be a mountaineer," Amatya says. "I would like to climb Mt Everest and be the first HIV person to scale that mountain. However, it's not only to set a world record. I want to tell the rest of the world that people living with HIV are normal people...

"I have been living with HIV for almost five years now. I want to do everything that people dream about..."

The other volunteers working in the ashram are like Amatya: they are all young, became infected with HIV due to intravenous drug use but have now quit the habit and become peer counsellors. 

"I was diagnosed with HIV two years back," says Sam Thapa, 25, who dreams of owning a Ferrari some day.

"(Now) I go out and talk with young people who are using drugs and I encourage them to quit drugs. It's difficult but once you kick it, good things in life come back. I'm so happy that I'm living. Live one day at a time."

--Indo-Asian News Service