Suresh is working for HIV-positive patients, trying to create a better life for them. He feels that if we work in a good direction, even the almighty will help us.

Suresh Jain is a Social Activist and the Chairperson of the NGO ‘Hadoti Network for People Living with HIV Aids Samiti’ which works for HIV patients of all ages. Professionally he is working as a consultant and his work ranges from creating audit reports, meeting reports, etc.

Suresh was born in a small village Bardiya Beerji which comes under Gangdhar Tehsil in the Jhalawar district. His initial education took place in the village primary school. For his secondary education, he moved to Awar village and then to Bhawani Mandi to complete his Higher Secondary.

Suresh says that around this time, in 2002, he got associated with social organizations and saw the deplorable condition of HIV patients in government hospitals. He says that even doctors were hesitant to treat them, and the patients faced a situation of social boycott and humiliation. Suresh started mobilizing such patients to Jaipur for better medical treatment and finally decided to start his own CBO (Community-based organization) and got it registered in 2007. In 2008, they got selected for a global fund program under DLN (District Level Network) in which they had to promote treatment access of HIV patients. The program was called PACT-Promoting Access to Care and Treatment.

In 2011, Suresh observed that many children suffering from AIDS were not getting proper access to treatment and education. Some of them were double orphaned while others had no support even from their parents. Suresh decided to start a ‘Child Care Home’ which housed fourteen children. He created different sections for male and female children as per government norms. He used to take care of all the expenses from his savings as donations were still not coming his way. However, once he got recognized by the government in 2015, he started getting government support. Around 80 percent of the expenditure started getting reimbursed and the rest he used to manage through community mobilization.

At present, there are 33 children in this care home and their complete care is looked after by Suresh and his wife. They are taking care of their food and care, education, and entertainment as well.

Suresh shares that during Covid, the situation became a bit grim. As the children are already immuno-compromised and have very low-immunity levels, their utmost priority was to keep them safe. They arranged for a separate building nearby to house their 24 staff members who were kept away from the children. They had two members each, in the girls and boys section, staying 24 hours and never going out and taking care of the children. Even Suresh and his wife were locked inside with these kids and did not go out to save these kids from any virus exposure. They arranged for online classes for these kids  and kept them entertained through different leisure activities.

Suresh informs that his role model is his son who is no more in this world. Suresh says that when his son was seriously ill, he used to say that Suresh should bring in more kids like himself who could not go out and play so that they can give each other some company. Suresh says that this feeling of his son proved to be a catalyst and Suresh started this Care Center.

Suresh says that he had to see a lot of struggle as well. He had very little financial and emotional support. Getting social acceptance for these kids was and still is a very tough task. He says that his wife used to take care of his son and Suresh used to look after the children in the care home. From their breakfast to lunch and dinner to education, everything was being managed by Suresh alone.

Suresh feels that as we work and progress, leadership skills are automatically developed in us. He says that we should treat our team members as family members and not as inferiors.

Suresh advises the gen-next to dedicatedly work in whichever field they choose to work in. He says that struggle and hardships are common in life and should not deter our growth.

If given a Time Machine, he would like to go back to his childhood and relive his no-worry childhood moments.