Maria is an HIV-positive woman. She has been collecting the documents needed to adopt her niece for several months.
During her recent visit to the custody and guardianship department, she was told that she could not adopt a child because of her HIV-positive status. Those were shocking news for the woman, because adoption is the only opportunity for a child to get a loving family again.
The woman reached the REActor with this issue and was informed that the refusal due to HIV status was illegal. According to the Order of the Ministry of Health “On approval of the List of diseases suffering from which a person cannot be an adoptive parent”, HIV was excluded from this list, so it is no longer an obstacle.
With this information, the woman re-applied to the custody and guardianship department, where the staff took this into account and later continued the adoption process.