Karuna Roy, this year's recipient of the E.H. Johnson award, has devoted her life to working with untouchables — people who are outcast from society, driven away, rejected. After 20 years working with the Leprosy Mission in India, Roy turned her attention to a new sort of untouchable. “People with HIV are driven from their homes, and suffer and die in the wilderness,” said Roy during an address to the assembly. “God is the power that is enabling me to serve in this role. The situation is grim and bleak, but God has planted us in the right place to serve such people under atrocious conditions.”
The E.H. Johnson award is given to people who are “on the cutting edge of mission.” As the creator and coordinator of the Church of North India's HIV/AIDS education program in the Synodical Board of Health Services in New Delhi, Roy raises awareness about the disease, educates people on protecting themselves and helps reduce stigma associated with HIV. She has held this position for 10 years, and concentrates much of her work on youth and young people, taking her message to schools. However, she helps all infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and touches the lives of everyone from parents to prisoners to commercial sex trade workers. She also heads up a program working with these sex workers in small villages where prostitution is sanctioned by the men of the villages.
“It is hard for me as a woman to talk about sex and AIDS and condoms,” she told the assembly. “What I need is strength, and that I get from you.”
She told the story of a young woman who once had a bright future. But after being continually sexually abused by an uncle, who was sleeping with other women as well, Shruti tested positive for HIV. She was withdrawn from school, and her family moved to a different village, as her parents feared that the devastating news would spread. Her uncle subsequently tested positive for the virus, as did the family's maid. The maid's husband was also infected. All are dead.
“It is these stories that give me strength. I learn from these incidences and I take that to others,” Roy told the Record. “It's hard because these people are close to my heart and then they disappear. It's not easy, but it's my job and I suppose I will do it as long as I live.”
This was Roy's fourth trip to Canada. She was at General Assembly last year as an ecumenical visitor. She has visited 29 congregations in the PCC, calling this country her “second home” and telling the assembly that the church is close to her heart. Roy and the Church of North of India are supported by International Ministries and Presbyterian Word Service & Development.
She urged the assembly to remember India in prayer. “India stands on the threshold of devastation,” she noted, saying that although official figures list 5.2 million people as living with HIV/AIDS (in a population of 1.2 billion), the figure could easily be doubled, as many cases go unreported.
In thanking Roy for her work, Rev. Rick Fee, General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency, commended the problem of HIV/AIDS to those gathered. “Please, this is not an Indian problem, or an African problem. It is our problem; a Canadian problem. But the church is responding. We are having an impact.”
The E.H. Johnson award honours the life, work and missionary spirit of Dr. E.H. (Ted) Johnson.
