15-year-old HIV boy scores 69%,migrant labourer’s daughter 79%

Nagpur: Despite challenging health conditions, a 15-year-old HIV positive boy weighing 25kg scored 69% in the SSC exam on Friday.
In another heartening story, fighting the odds, the daughter of migrant labourers secured 79%.
The promising girl was handed over to the non-governmental organization ‘Sharanasthan’, which has completed two decades of helping children of commercial sex workers, shortly after her birth.
With her parents working at a brick kiln in Hyderabad, the studious girl was handed over to the NGO by her aunt residing in Ganga Jamuna, the city’s red-light area.
“I want to become a nurse and serve society,” she said.
The NGO’s key functionaries, Easo and Leela Daniel, are elated with the performance of the HIV boy. “Apart from HIV, the boy also suffers from tuberculosis. He fell sick just before the exams,” said a source, adding, the boy frequently suffers from stomach ailments but displayed a never-say-die attitude when it came to his studies.
“We give him eggs and high protein food everyday,” said the source.
Another 16-year-old boy, also staying at Sharanasthan, scored 79%. His mother was the only commercial sex worker who died due to Covid complications in Ganga Jamuna in 2020. His sister too had scored 56% in the board exams two years ago and is set to join a school in Yavatmal as a teacher.
A 14-year-old girl from the same NGO, offering shelter home with all the facilities, including study support, also got 65%.
Her friend, who scored around 64%, wants to join the police department. It’s learnt the girls came from Ganga Jamuna since childhood and subsequently lost their respective mothers.