Amila*(38) is a resident of Kanththankudi in the Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka. He is married having a 10 years old son. He sells clothes for his livelihood and earns around Rs.700.00 per day. He was engaged with the same livelihood when he left the country for Saudi Arabia to work as a tea boy at Sumez general hospital in March 1996. The loss of income due to restrictions of movement created by war forced him to leave the country for greener pastures. However, he came back to Sri Lanka in 1997 intending not to go Saudi Arabia but later he changed his mind.

In 1998 he got married when he was back to the country for a holiday. In the same year his son was born when he was back in Saudi Arabia.

He was diagnosed with HIV when he faced a medical check at Medi Spot hospital in Colombo to go back to Saudi Arabia. At the beginning the doctor told him that he had a problem in his blood. However, he got to know through one of his friends who had gone through the same test that he was contracted with HIV. From the day he came to know about this he was going through a very difficult period as he spent most of his time crying even though he had not told it to his wife until he got the confirmed report. However, as his wife was an educated woman she got to know about it by reading the medical report. He strictly preserves his confidentiality as an HIV positive person in his village even though he tells it to his friends living in other parts of the country.

Neither his wife nor his child contracted the disease as he used condoms when he was with his wife since both of them did not expect children in the immediate future. His wife has been an excellent partner to him in many ways as she was supporting him previously financially running a grocery shop of which goods were washed away by 2004 Tsunami.

Amila claims that he had been in an excellent physical condition even though he had been with the virus for 10 years. He claims that this is due to the fact that he makes sure to take 3 nutritional meals a day and he also gets physical exercises when he walks to sell clothes. The possibility of missing one or two meals while he is working is minimized as most of his customers offer him food during meal times as they are friendly with him. Amila further claims that his physical condition is such that he had been getting blood count test (CD4) done only since last 4 years. He was not on ARTs until very recently as he CD4 count was usually ok. He was just taking Vitamin E tablets. But most recently he has been on ART.

Amila describes that he got contracted with the virus while he was working in the Sumez general hospital. He was both working as tea boy as well as in an operation theater. When some of the regular employees working in Operation Theater were on leave Amila was called for attending duties at the theater. Along with him two other staffs were also working in the theater, one male and a female, a Saudi and an Indian national respectively. He claims that he got contracted with the virus from the Indian female staff when he had sex with her during a party when he was drunk. Even though he abstains from drinking he was compelled to drink during parties held there. He got to know that his friend also had the virus when he phoned his Saudi colleague to inform about his condition as he feared about his friend who was also having sex with their female colleague.

Even though at times he regrets, he gets solace when he thinks about his only son. His son is also well aware about the disease as he gives awareness to him about the disease. He also gets a lot satisfaction by contributing on his own way raising awareness on HIV & AIDS among general public. He pasted posters along road closer to some hospitals and town in his area and close by areas with the support of UNAIDS. And also whenever he meets people he gives awareness about the disease to them.

He travels once a month to Colombo to attend the clinic at the Colombo Hospital, nearly 420 km from Kanttankudy, his home town. Amila says that he has so far faced no problem in accessing the medicines. Even though the medical facility could have been made available by the health authorities at the Baticaloa hospital, the nearest district hospital to his villagem, he prefers to go to Colombo as he fears that the confidentiality would be exposed as most of the doctors working in the hospital are from the town he lives in.

*Name changed for confidentiality.