Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - Monday, 19 November, 2003
Bogdan (not his real name), a 14-year-old Romanian, lives in the St Mary Centre for HIV-positive children who have been abandoned. He describes how he became infected, the prejudice he experiences and his hopes for the future.
I am the spokesman for the children from the St Mary Centre.
We are all between 13 and 15 years old and have been abandoned by our parents. My mother died, but my father is still alive. I also have a brother, a grandmother and a few cousins. I see them sometimes, mostly in school. My brother and my cousins go to the same school as I do.
I am HIV-positive, like the rest of the children at the centre.
I became infected when I was very little, when I was one or two years old. I got the virus from another infected child. They gave me an injection.
They were supposed to disinfect the needle, but they didn't. They gave the shot first to an infected child and then to me. That's how I got the virus.
Sometimes I imagine the woman who gave me the shot. I think she was not very bright. That's how I imagine her. I don't think she wanted to infect me on purpose. She was just lazy, didn't bother to disinfect the needle. She was also old and that's why she wasn't punished. They forgave her.
Winning over the village
In any case I'm not at all convinced I have HIV. I really don't think so. I don't feel this disease in my body. I know that other children feel it, they're sick, but I'm not. I have the odd illness like any other child, infected or not, but that's all.
I came to live in the St Mary Centre this August. The house has been built especially for us. It is our home and we thank the villagers that they have eventually understood that we are not a danger to them and allowed us to settle here.
People didn't want their children to have HIV positive classmates at first but eventually they agreed - only one woman moved her child to another school
When we first came they were hostile though.
They thought we were going to throw infected needles and blood-stained dressings in our backyard and that their children might be put at risk.
They also said that the water we washed with would go into the River Golesti and their cattle will drink it and become infected. They simply didn't know, they were not informed. They kept gathering at the Town Hall and writing petitions against us.
But finally, through our care-givers' efforts and with the good God's help they stopped and they accepted us.
Keeping others safe
I go to school in the village now. There have been some problems there, too. People didn't want their children to have HIV-positive classmates. But eventually they agreed. Only one woman moved her child to another school.
I like going to school and I like the children in my class. They're nice, they help me and the other children from St Mary Centre. They even come to visit us in our home and we play together.
They are not at risk at all. I know how to protect them. If I have an open wound then I don't allow anybody to come anywhere close to me. I go straight to the nurse and tell her to wear gloves and dress my wound. God forbid I infect another child!
I want to have my own children one day. I think they are going to make a vaccine to cure HIV and Aids I know they are doing research in the US.
I want to have a family, a wife, a child and to become an IT specialist.
But they have to find the vaccine first.
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