"Padma" is 35 and came to Sahara in the fall of 2006. Her father worked in the fields growing chillies and sugarcane. She never attended school. Padma married at age 20 and has two sons, 10 and 8. Her husband lays marble and tiles. After the children were born, she and her husband became estranged.

In 2004, Padma started feeling very sick. She had asthmatic symptoms, no appetite, and lost weight. In the summer of 2006, Padma was tested for HIV at a private clinic. "I started crying a lot when I found out that I was positive. I was devastated. When my husband came to know that he is also positive, he started drinking a lot. He said this is God's will and no one can change it. He would sit by himself and never talk to anyone." Padma's children are living with her husband. He has not been seeking health care for himself and recently contracted herpes. The rest of her family is in the dark about their diagnosis.

Padma has been feeling much better since she came to Sahara. "I feel good here," she says with a smile. "They take care of me like I am at home." Her dream is to work, to help herself and her family. She used to sell chai from a small stall. "I'll be looking forward to working again."

Rajiv, 38, comes from a village near Pune. His father ran a cycle shop out of their house, and Rajiv attended school to the 10th standard (grade). He married at 20; his wife was 16. They had a son, now 15, and a daughter, 14. He was an auto rickshaw driver. In 2000 Rajiv began to feel sick, with weakness, cough, fever, body aches, and loss of appetite. He developed tuberculosis, which led to an HIV test.

Rajiv's wife and children were also tested and found negative. But his family and community reacted very badly to his diagnosis. His father-in-law and mother-in-law came to the house and said, "You are very ill. We don't want our daughter to stay with you until you get better." So his wife left. His family took care of him, but would never sit next to him. They kept their dishes, bedding, and soap separate from his and made him sleep in the entryway of the house. The harassment Rajiv got from the community was even worse. They used to chase him and throw things at him. "Because of you our children will be infected," they would say. "You'd better get away, you'll only trouble us." From 2000 to 2003, Rajiv was working off and on, but finally he got too sick to work and the villagers chased him out altogether. He used to sleep outside, in others' auto rickshaws, without their knowledge. He wouldn't eat for 15 days at a time sometimes, unless his mother found him and gave him something. He became very depressed from always being alone. In September 2004 Rajiv came to Sahara . At the time he had advanced tuberculosis and wasn't walking. He thought that he might not live. For almost two years Rajiv was mostly bedridden. He began walking again in August 2006.

"The care and support, affection and love I got here is the main reason that I've sustained so long. They took care of me like family," Rajiv says. He is still cut off from his own family, except for his mother who visits. Some counsellors from Sahara tried to visit his village and make contact, but they were also attacked and chased out by his neighbours. Rajiv himself has tried to go and talk to his family to tell them that they won't get sick just by sitting or eating with him, but they have totally refused to listen. "Most of them don't know what HIV is," he says. "Even if you tell them, they remain ignorant."

Rajiv has discovered a passion for drawing at Sahara . His notebook is full of detailed pencil sketches of famous people and Hindu deities. He is looking forward to getting stronger so he can volunteer to help other patients on the ward.

Manda, age 30, is the daughter of a coolie (railway porter). She never went to school and was married at 14 to an auto rickshaw driver. They had three daughters who are 18, 15, and 12. She used to work as a maid washing clothes and dishes. Manda found out she was HIV positive a decade ago, when her second daughter was 5 years old. At the time she knew nothing about the disease. She had been getting sick off and on for years so it didn't seem like anything unusual.

There is a lot of denial about HIV in Manda's family. She says her family has continued to take care of her and visit her but they don't know that she's positive. She still isn't aware whether her children or husband have been tested. In December 2006, a social worker who works at Sahara brought her there. At the time she was very weak and couldn't even drink water. Three weeks later, she was feeling much better, getting around independently and eating. "I like it here," she said with a big smile.

"People talk to me, sit next to me, and understand me more than anyone ever has." She says after a few months, when she's feeling better, she'll be ready to go back home and talk about her diagnosis. "I'm not scared of it anymore. If anyone asks me, I will talk them about it and tell them, you can sit next to me, you can eat from the same plate."

"Manisha" is 22 or 23. She came from a family of four sisters and three brothers and married at 13. Two years later, she had a son, and her husband, a lorry driver, was killed just 15 days later in an accident. After that, she lived alone with her son and sold plantains on a cart. In the fall of 2006 Manisha started really feeling sick. She couldn't work, couldn't eat, and almost couldn't breathe. Two months after testing positive for HIV, Manisha is still having trouble accepting it. "No one in my family is positive, so how can I be?" she asks. She says she doesn't know anything about HIV, or how you get it. She hasn't talked with her family about her diagnosis, or had her son tested.

When Manisha first came to Sahara in the fall of 2006, the centre directors were ambivalent about taking her because it seemed that she wouldn't live long. She couldn't walk and had rashes all over her arms and hands. The staff sat up all night with her for two weeks, giving her the nebuliser (inhaler) in the middle of the night and praying for her. Now, she is eager to be stronger and is even taking walks without permission! She doesn't think she'll be able to go back to her old work since she can't lift a full bucket, but she would like to find another kind of work.

"Frank," 32, is the son of a night watchman. He finished only the second standard in school, but earned a good living as a mason, making 6000 Rs (about $133) a month. He married in 2003 and had a son. In 2004 he fell sick for the first time. He had a bad cold and oral thrush. He went to a public hospital for a cyst on his thigh and was tested for HIV there. At the time he didn't know much about HIV. Now, he knows it is transmitted sexually.

When Frank's wife tested positive as well, she became very angry and began to abuse him. She blamed him for their illness and said, "You are worse than a vagabond." His parents were angry as well, but his mother still accepted and took care of him. Frank first came to Sahara in 2005, but he left against his doctor's advice and tried to go back to work. In October 2006 he fell very sick again, and came back. Frank has several neurological symptoms: right side paralysis, memory loss, and convulsions.

After coming to Sahara , Frank improved within a few months. His convulsions are under control with medication and he doesn't feel itchy any more. He is walking with a cane and slowly regaining the use of his right side. Frank would like to tell people that HIV is nothing to be afraid of. "Those who are infected with HIV shouldn't be shunned. I got infected by mistake. If people would only sit down with me and talk to me and eat with me, I would feel better."