Aasha Kumar

Aasha is a 42-year-old widow from the Baramati district of Maharashtra. She has a 10-year-old son who lives with his paternal grandparents. After her husband passed away in 2013, Aasha and her son were tested, and she was diagnosed with a serious condition.

The next three years were extremely difficult for Aasha. She had no relational, financial, or medical support and was expelled by her in-laws. With no one else to turn to, she wandered around the village school, occasionally catching glimpses of her son. Some locals occasionally gave her food, but she eventually left for Pune in search of work due to starvation and desperation. She resigned herself to the idea of dying with her misunderstanding of her condition. While sitting at Pune station, a compassionate woman noticed her and took her home.

In 2016, Aasha went to Rajiv Gandhi Hospital (RGH) to register, where a Sahara Red Cap representative made a significant impression on her. Sahara promptly started her on ART, trained her, and employed her as an outreach worker at the Pimpri DIC, and helped her find a rented house.

When the DIC shut down after a year, Sahara assisted Aasha in securing a job at a petrol station. Sahara’s holistic approach also helped her obtain personal documents for Aadhar, PAN, and to open a bank account.

Health-wise, Aasha has shown significant improvement: her CD4 count increased from around 250 to 625, her hemoglobin from 8 to over 10, and her weight from around 35 to 53 kilos. She consistently adheres to her ART regimen with the support of the Yerwada team. From the beginning of her registration with Sahara, the organization made a concerted effort to understand the breadth and depth of her concerns. Additionally, Aasha explored her legal options regarding her son and the assets she left behind in her village—a house and some farmland. After becoming well-informed, she filed a case against her mother-in-law and is on the verge of a favorable verdict, expected in December 2018 or January 2019, to have her assets transferred solely to her son.

Just two years after joining the KCA project, Aasha is now unbelievably happy, well-settled, and earning a monthly salary of Rs. 15,000, along with an additional Rs. 150 as a daily allowance.

Reflecting on her journey with Sahara and the KCA project, Aasha shared her sentiments:

"Anita Tai and Sahara have given me such 'Sahara' (support) that I would not be alive today without them."

"All my people left me, and I had nobody. But now I consider Sahara to be my everything—my mother, father, brother, sister, even my god!"

"Nobody who looks at me today would believe my past or the fate I once resigned myself to."