Ratansingh firmly believed in destiny.
He believed that fate had a firm hand in pushing one to his/her goal. This belief made Ratansingh heed his heart and act instinctively. After all who was he to mess with God’s grand plans for him? It is this quirk that took Ratansingh, the graduate from Gorakhpur University on a tour to all the big cities in India.
The city of his dreams - Mumbai always beckoned him with dreams of stardom and the lure of money. After two months of job hunting Ratansingh finally got hired as a supervisor in a loom factory. The money was sufficient to support his family in Gorakhpur.
Life was routine until his chance encounter with the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI), an NGO supported by Avert Society. He was asked to gather five to eight coworkers for a discussion on health.
Ratansingh garnered all the influence he could muster to gather twenty three people for the discussion. What seemed like a regular discussion on health, was in fact a discussion on safe sexual practices and HIV/AIDS. His initial embarrassment slowly gave way to information on how to protect himself and safeguard the health of his colleagues.
Intrigued by all that he had heard about HIV/AIDS, Ratansingh jumped at the chance of becoming a peer educator with FPAI. He joined the training with gusto and was soon introduced to concepts that dispelled existing myths and misconceptions.
All the workshops and meetings taught him valuable lessons. He found that he could reach out to people; his fearlessness permitted him to stand up amidst a roomful of people and talk confidently about HIV/AIDS. The underlying desire to change the way people thought or behaved around him, provided further motivation for the task.
In his very first experience, Ratansingh managed to motivate 10 people to get an HIV test done. His fame slowly spread from the by lanes of Bhiwandi to his native village of Gorakhpur.
Ratansingh had heard that one of his fellow villagers was diagnosed as HIV positive and was made to sleep separately in his house. Ratansingh met him and talked to him - much to the chagrin of the villagers. Ratansingh slowly educated and informed the man’s wife about HIV and soon the wife began to look after her husband.
Ratansingh slowly found an audience in other villagers and launched into sessions on sharing knowledge, about HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support for those already infected.Ratansingh is testimony to the fact that the zeal and determination to make a difference in others lives is also crucial.
His empathy, the ability to reach people with words and motivate them to stay healthy went a long way in winning hearts. With many more people like Ratansingh at the helm of societal change, FPAI has recognized the true power of people.