Article Source: InterPress Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 2 (IPS) - At an age when most 20-year-olds dream of living a perfect life, Kousalya Periasamy found hers shaken by personal tragedies.

Within a month of her marriage in 1996 to a truck driver in Namakkal, in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, her spouse was diagnosed with AIDS. Six months later he died, but not before doctors confirmed Kousalya’s worst nightmare that she too was infected with the deadly HIV virus. The hapless widow's life could well have followed an unhappy trajectory from there. But Kousalya chose to give things a different turn.

She moved from Namakkal to the state capital of Chennai with her uncle in 1997. Here, she joined an initiative called INP Plus (Indian Network for Positive People Plus) which disseminated information about HIV/AIDS. When INP Plus opened a separate wing for women and children - PWN (Positive Women's Network) Plus - Kousalya was chosen to helm it.

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