The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Reaching out to society the children’s way

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Monday, Apr 14, 2008
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reaching out to society the children’s way

Ramya Kannan

“We know it doesn’t spread through touch or by eating food a positive person brings”

(From right) School students Sarathkumar, V. Jeevitha and S. Asintaj, discussing the documentary film on HIV/AIDS at Gudiyatham recently.

CHENNAI: If you allow children to fashion realities, they are sure to be a whole lot more positive and sure to take a dig at adults.

Like a bunch of 25 children from Vellore and Chennai did, with their short film “Got you!” a tongue-in-cheek drama that takes a swipe at adult hypocrisy and ignorance in the context of the HIV stigma. All the more significant is the children came out of child labour and HIV projects in Chennai and Vellore.

Facilitated by World Vision India, they spent ten days at a camp learning about child rights and how to express their concerns through the media and arts.

‘Got you!’ is a delightful take on the attitude of a mischievous girl to her positive status, playing out a day in her life. She plays pranks on her new teacher, curing him of his old-world notion that HIV spreads by touch. With interesting camera angles and some fine acting by child artist Keerthna in the lead, the film comes across powerfully. The project was completed with hand holding by Nalanda Way Foundation, a creative media NGO that works with children.

As for most of the children who worked on the project, for S. Asintaj from Gudiyatham in Vellore, it was the first-ever close encounter with HIV. One of the children in the group was HIV positive, and it was on her life that the story was based, she says. “We know it doesn’t spread through touch or by eating food a positive person brings. We also know that a lot of people still don’t think so. And like this girl, it is possible to live happily even if HIV positive. Asintaj might have dropped out if not for the World Vision sponsorship that came right on time. “My family could have never afforded it.”

Even now, V. Jeevitha of Gudiyatham says her family has not yet seen the film she has helped make, simply because they could not watch a CD at home. “But I have to at least rent a CD player and show it at home. I know my parents will be proud of me,” she says. Agreeing with her is the older boy Sarath Kumar, who worked for four years in a bakery earning Rs.7 a day before he was rehabilitated. He seems to be the writer for the group, having proposed the story for “Got You!” He has even written and played the lead in a story about his own life.

Sriram Aiyer of Nalanda Way says, “The idea is to get the child’s voice to reach mainstream society and find solutions,” he said.

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