Sometimes disability comes not as a hindrance, but as an empowerment, and gives courage to rise each time when a person falls. At Human Touch Foundation (HTF), the work with adolescents and young people living with HIV goes far beyond treatment support ” the foundation focuses on nurturing their mind, future, dignity and resilience.
“Our strongest pillar today is mental health, helping young people manage anxiety, stigma, self-esteem, disclosure, and emerging concerns around sexual and reproductive health, dating, relationships, and identity,” states Celina Menezes, secretary, Human Touch Foundation that works across Goa.
HTF works extensively on social protection, ensuring access to schemes, benefits, and safety nets that many are otherwise excluded from. Through career guidance, skill-building, and mentorship, the foundation supports young people in securing employment or even starting their own entrepreneurial journeys.
“Our food security programme ensures no adolescent’s health is compromised because of poverty. Twice a year, our WeRise residential camps create safe, healing spaces where they learn, express, and connect with peers who understand their journey,” shares Celina.
Importantly, the foundation also provides international exposure through engagements with UNAIDS, UN agencies, and global youth networks, enabling them to meet, learn from, and collaborate with young people living with HIV across borders ” strengthening their confidence and leadership.
Here’s how the foundation builds up lives and lights up hope in the midst of darkness and nowhere.
When Jay (name changed) was six, his world changed with a single word he didn’t understand: HIV. He was too young to know what it meant, but old enough to feel the weight of silence. His earliest memories are not of toys or birthdays, but of medicine bottles, whispered conversations, and the quiet ache of being “different.” He lost his parents without ever really knowing them, and was placed in an institutional care home that offered shelter ” but never truly gave him a place to belong.
Jay grew up battling more than a virus. He fought stigma, self-doubt, and a system that often looked right past him. He wasn’t just surviving HIV ” he was surviving a society that didn’t want to talk about it.
But something inside Jay refused to break. At 15, he was brought into the Human Touch Foundation’s care. It was here that Jay first heard someone say, “You’re not alone.” For the first time, his HIV status wasn’t treated as a secret or a shame. It was simply part of who he was ” not the whole story.
Jay started to heal ” emotionally, socially, spiritually. He began to dream, to speak, to lead. He found power in his voice, sharing his story with other adolescents who felt just as invisible. His words ” raw, real, and fearless ” helped others believe that they, too, could have a future.
In 2023, Jay stood on an international stage at the AIDS Conference in Munich. The same child once silenced by stigma was now a youth advocate, holding a microphone and demanding dignity for those born positive.
Today, Jay mentors others at HTF, building the community he never had as a child. He still takes his medication daily. He still remembers the pain. But he no longer lets it define him. Jay is not a statistic. He is not a sob story. He is not his diagnosis. He is a fighter, a dreamer, a leader. And a reminder that even in the harshest storms, some flowers still grow.
This is not just Jay’s story. It’s a wake-up call to all of us ” to stop treating young people living with HIV as problems to be managed, and start seeing them as voices to be amplified.
Because ending AIDS by 2030 isn’t just about pills and targets. It’s about people. It’s about Jay. And he’s just getting started. “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become,” he asserts with confidence.
