The only shelter for HIV/AIDS patients in Singapore
Tucked into a secluded, overgrowth-covered corner of Singapore's bustling concrete jungle and surrounded by a nondescript white picket fence is a small two-storey building with a slanted, tiled roof.
Behind its padlocked gate is a roughly 50m-long winding stone path that leads to the Catholic Aids Response Effort (CARE) shelter, the only abode for people living with HIV and AIDS in Singapore.
For 13 years before opening its shelter in 2002, CARE's volunteers visited patients in hospital and in their homes, attending to their most pressing needs. It will be uprooted again by the end of this year to a new site after the area it currently occupies was acquired by the government last year.
Apart from housing about 30 male residents who have been diagnosed with HIV, CARE runs a support programme for women with HIV or AIDS and their children. It also runs education programmes in schools and a volunteer befrienders programme.
"Previously, the situation was different when AIDS was a dying disease [when patients couldn't expect to live very long after diagnosis] — the shelter was a place for them to stay until they die," said CARE's executive director Michael Loh in an interview with Yahoo! Singapore. "With modern science, there is new medication that can prolong their life, so now the focus has shifted to helping them re-integrate into mainstream society."
Loh says more challenges come saddled with these improvements, though: helping residents to rise above their feelings of guilt, shame and hopelessness, regain their confidence and self-esteem, and helping them to realise their self-worth.
For the residents of CARE, the shelter acts not only as a free-of-charge place for them to reside in, but also organises activities for them to keep them occupied. It also has a visiting counsellor who lends a listening ear to them and it provides two meals a day.
The take-up rate of these activities, such as candle-making to help raise funds and donations for the upkeep of the shelter, has been low, but staff at the shelter continue to encourage residents to get themselves involved.
Few know about CARE or its work, though, because of its low profile — and its staff have kept it that way because of the sensitivity of their work.
Still, CARE continues to strive to tackle public misconceptions, such as the notion that people with HIV or AIDS "got what they deserved" or "reaped what they sowed" through "straying from the right path". There are many cases where HIV was passed on to innocent parties — for instance from infected mother to child, delinquent to faithful spouse, and via infected needles.
"(People should) be more understanding and empathetic towards people living with HIV/AIDS and not discriminate against them," said Loh, when asked what the residents need to lead better lives. "Everyone can start by extending a friendly hand towards them—this can happen within their own family, in their community or workplace."
Who supports CARE? Currently, its umbrella organisation Caritas, the Catholic Church's social arm, funds about 80 per cent of its operations. CARE relies on public donations for its remaining 20 per cent. It also aims to secure corporate and institutional donors on a regular basis in order to expand its work further.
If you would like to find out more about CARE and how you can help them with their work, please visit their website here.
Yahoo! Singapore 9
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