Today I am going to continue with the stories of the children & today I will be telling you about Vijay & Harris;
Vijay & Harris are brothers & their story is the same which is why today you get two for the price of one.
Vijay is the boy on the left. He is 12 years old but does look a lot younger because the HIV affects him worse than some of the other children and it has stunted his growth. Fortunately he hasn't been unwell in the time I have been here. Harris is 11 years old but looks like the older brother.
Both boys contracted HIV through their mother at birth. Unfortunately she died here at the hospice 4 years ago & their father died here as well one year later. The boys have been here ever since, about 3 years now.
They do have family, 2 uncles & they do have a home outside of the hospice but unfortunately their Uncles took advantage of the situation after their father died & took the home that was rightfully theirs from them which is why the boys are living here.
Once a year the boys go to stay with their uncles but I have been told that they argue about who they stay with as they don't really want them there. If I understand correctly they only have the children to stay to help them in the future when legal challenges are made to who has the legal right to the house.
The challenge can't be made right now because of the boys ages- they will have to wait until they are 18 & the Hospice cannot make a challenge for them as they say it would be likely that a claim would be made that the Hospice wanted the property for themselves.
Hopefully though, when the time comes the boys will get what is rightfully theirs but even if they don't they are guaranteed to be taken care of by real Human Beings here at the Hospice. Not a nice one to go out on this time but I guess that's just the reality of some of the lives here :'( Stuart :) x x x
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