AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Indian matchmakers are helping¹ HIV/ AIDS sufferers find partners, advertising² in the matrimonial columns of weekend newspapers and arranging weddings.

Matchmakers write the ads, keep the identities of would-be brides and grooms⁴ secret and arrange counseling for couples facing the rest of their lives together with a killer⁵ disease, says H. Raj, who runs a wedding bureau in the commercial capital of Gujarat state, Ahmedabad.

"It was tough taking care of my young daughter after I lost my husband from AIDS," says a 35-year-old kindergarten teacher."Because of my financial and emotional needs, I wanted to find a partner ... who was HIV positive like me. For us, marriage is about accepting the truth and living well, even with a killer disease."

She married a man she found through the matrimonial columns, in a simple ceremony at her parents’ home. Most marriages in India are still arranged, though generally with the consent of the bride and groom³, and newspapers are full of such ads.

But India’s five million HIV/AIDS sufferers face vicious prejudice. They are sacked from their jobs, shunned⁶ by their families, friends and neighbors, thrown out of hospital beds and sometimes denied treatment.

And HIV/AIDS widows face a double stigma⁷ in a country where some women withdraw from daily life when their husbands die.