CHAIYAPHUM, Thailand (UCAN) -- With sad black eyes and very short hair, Warawut, 11, sits alone in a dim corner of his shack in a garbage dump.

The boy inherited HIV from his mother, who died of AIDS a number of years ago. His father, who also developed AIDS, is still alive but very ill. Warawut lives with his grandparents, who survive by picking through garbage.

"Many friends told me I have an infectious and fatal disease, and they dare not play with me," he told UCA News softly. He is one of tens of HIV-positive people receiving assistance and support from the Church-run Mary's Help Community Center in Chaiyaphum, about 280 kilometers northeast of Bangkok.

Born with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that usually leads to AIDS, Warawut faces discrimination and prejudice. Schoolmates reject him. "They do not like me. They hate me, and I am always anguished when they revile my parents." He does, however, find acceptance and solace in visits by a priest and some nuns, who bring him food and medicine, and help him with schoolwork.

Last year, when his school discovered that he has HIV, the principal forbade him to go to school. Filipina Sister Elisa Dumapit, coordinator of the Mary's Help center, told UCA News she and other nuns went to see Warawut's principal to explain facts about HIV. Afterwards the boy was allowed back at school.

Father Filomeno Mahusay of the Mission Society of the Philippines founded the center in 1994. He told UCA News, "The HIV virus does not directly kill those who are infected, but it also infects the attitudes of people in their communities." Many people are afraid of the disease, he said, "so they do not want HIV-positive children to be in their society, and many of these children cannot go to school."

The priest, Sister Dumapit and two other Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul nuns carry out the center's activities. About 15 volunteers, all living with HIV, help them. They visit the homes of families with HIV-positive members. According to Sister Dumapit, the center supports 111 such families in 51 villages in Chaiyaphum and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces. The volunteers and the people they support are mostly Buddhists, the religion of close to 95 percent of the people in Thailand.

The center provides financial assistance for the education of HIV-positive children and food to those children whose parents have died. It also has supported the livelihood of seven families by giving them two pigs each to raise. Once a month it organizes a gathering of people living with HIV/AIDS in a hospital, and it trains people living with HIV to speak with other people who find out they are infected. Meanwhile, it works to raise awareness in society by disseminating facts about HIV/AIDS and how it is spread.

Jaew Pikul, whose husband infected her before he died, told UCA News the priest and nuns do not give her money, but rather "they encourage and care for us." Jaew, whose daughter does not have HIV, said she will work as long as she is able to support other people living with HIV.

According to Suchart Dungkhuntod, 25, a center volunteer, poverty and ignorance are behind most cases of people contracting HIV. The virus is spreading, although the media have been quiet about this, he maintained. In his view, "The priest and nuns are not fighting against HIV/AIDS only but also against ignorance."

Sister Dumapit said the many challenges her center faces include insufficient financial resources, lack of work opportunities for HIV-positive people and the fact that many of them live far from the center and each other.

Nonetheless, Father Mahusay wants them "to know that there are still many people who love them and are concerned about them."

Thailand recorded its first case of HIV in 1984. A statement issued in July 2003 by the interreligious Consultation on AIDS in Thailand Since said about 1 million people had been infected by then, of whom 300,000 had died. Unofficial estimates place the number of people infected with HIV as high as 2 million.

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