Homepage > Thai Youth Issues > Teen speaks out on HIV/Aids

Oct 7, 2001 The Nation

Her mother has been separated from her father since she was young; her stepfather died of Aids four years ago; and now her HIV-infected mother is sick and has no regular job - to many, Nik Sricome's life must look doomed.

However, 16-year-old Nik has refused to give up on her future, and has been lucky to get full support and advice from the abbot of the village temple.

Once at the bottom of her school in terms of performance, Nik is now in the top five in her class. She has even made her way to Australia, an achievement for a girl who never previously travelled far from her home in a small village in San Pa Tong district or her school in Chiang Mai.

Nik will tomorrow address the youth forum at the Sixth International Congress on Aids in Asia and the Pacific in Melbourne, as a Thai youth delegate.

She was selected along with four other young people from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Fiji and Australia by the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/Aids and Family Health International to discuss drug use, sex education and HIV/Aids prevention.

The young people will share their experiences, find solutions and build networks. A youth charter on HIV/Aids will be developed by the young people after the meeting.

Nik, a good speaker, admitted she was first excited and then very proud of being chosen to do this very important job.

Nik thanked one person for making her life change for the better: Luang Phi Daeng, the abbot of Hua Rin temple. It happened when Nik followed her mother to the temple, where an HIV/Aids support group is located.

Her mother, along with 34 other women whose husbands have died or are now dying of Aids, works under an income-generating project initiated by the monk at the suggestion of visiting Japanese monks.

The women earn about Bt80 to Bt130 a day sewing robes for the monks in Japan.

Luang Phi Daeng or Phra Athikarn Thanawat Thaechapanyo, 39, a native of the village, founded the support-group project in 1994 to educate villagers about the issue through Dhamma teachings and to decrease the stigmatisation of the families affected.

The monk advised Nik, who always accompanied her mother, to focus on her studies and her future career.

"He told me my mother was sick and so if I was not paying attention to my studies then there would be no future for me," said Nik, who also works as a peer educator for HIV/Aids.

Nik decided to study cooking and flower-decorating courses at a vocational school to gain job skills so that she could begin working right away.

"I just don't want to waste any time studying anything else," she said. "I want to work hard to be able to take care of my mom, to relieve her burden and to make her happy," she said.

As an Aids peer educator, Nik has this important message for young people: "You better pay attention to HIV/Aids information because it is very important for your lives. Otherwise you could make a mistake that will destroy you and your future," she said.

"I want other teenagers, whether they are affected by HIV/Aids or not, to learn from my lesson and to try to not give up, to think wisely, to move on and to live normally," Nik said.

Mukdawan Sakboon

THE NATION, CHIANG MAI