India
Children
Updates from the Field - Food, Shelter and School for AIDS Orphans in India
Updates from the FieldUpdates from the Field (or Progress Reports) on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.com by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
|
Recent Updates from the Field
News
By C.P. Kumar - Director - Little Hearts, May 01, 2009 03:18 PM
The children are doing very well and feeding them with nutritious food, providing medical care, in a single word "everthing" what children need and expect from us. The food and accommodation which is mixed with LOVE.
At present we have been feeding 38 children. Among them most of the children are HIV/AIDS full orphans and some of them are abandoned.
Feeding them with nutritious food like Milk, Egg, Fruits, Snacks and once in a week Chicken or Fish. To wash clothes of little ones we have engaged one woman, to teach all subjects engaged 2 tutors in addition to government school and to take care of maintenance recently we have appointed another male figure who is 28 years old and also full orphan. He is staying with the children at little hearts.
In February, Chandra Reddy Degree College final year students presented little hearts Refrigerator worth of 10,000 but that's not sufficient to keep things. So from our fund we have added another 5000 rupees and bought 15000 rupees worth double door refrigerator.
From this academic year which begins on 12th June, we are planning to provide them with very good education. To suceed in our lives on this planet, we need to have EDUCATION.
Many thanks to al our donors!
At present we have been feeding 38 children. Among them most of the children are HIV/AIDS full orphans and some of them are abandoned.
Feeding them with nutritious food like Milk, Egg, Fruits, Snacks and once in a week Chicken or Fish. To wash clothes of little ones we have engaged one woman, to teach all subjects engaged 2 tutors in addition to government school and to take care of maintenance recently we have appointed another male figure who is 28 years old and also full orphan. He is staying with the children at little hearts.
In February, Chandra Reddy Degree College final year students presented little hearts Refrigerator worth of 10,000 but that's not sufficient to keep things. So from our fund we have added another 5000 rupees and bought 15000 rupees worth double door refrigerator.
From this academic year which begins on 12th June, we are planning to provide them with very good education. To suceed in our lives on this planet, we need to have EDUCATION.
Many thanks to al our donors!
Want to support this project's continued work? 
Visitor postcard: The Definition of Love
By Shelley Seale - Visitor to project and author, February 05, 2009 01:46 PM
Recently, Shelley Seale visited “Food, Shelter and School for AIDS Orphans in India.” Of her visit, she wrote:
How do you explain love? How do you begin to describe and comprehend the forces of compassion, faith and dedication that can so define a person that he will spend the hours of his life loving those whom no else stops to notice? Those whom he has no obligation to care about, no reason to work for, and no reward other than the knowledge that he is making some small dent in the endless tide of need.
The best you can hope to do is to stand outside a small, nondescript building on a dusty street in the middle of India, and watch two dozen once-homeless children rush out to greet the man who didn’t allow them to fall through the crack. Here in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where 30% of adults have HIV/AIDS, C.P. Kumar and his family took in 26 abandoned children. The epidemic has created a secondary human rights crisis – the orphaning of children on a massive scale.
These are the silent disasters. For the past fifteen years C.P. has cared for these children left behind in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. C.P. Kumar works as a clerk in the government during the day, but spends most of his evenings with the children.
For hours we played games and sang songs. Eager students brought me their schoolwork and stood by, nervously and proudly, as I pored over it. Most of the children were very young, ranging from four to ten years old, with only a couple of twelve or fourteen. The oldest was an eighth-grade girl called Sutrasini. When she wasn’t playing chess she followed me quietly, watching with the interest an almost-adult exhibits in the actions of a grown-up.
Sutrasini and the others attended school right down the street, and C.P. and his wife Mamatha - along with their own two sons, Prince and Boon - provided a loving surrogate family. Little Hearts was truly a place for children who had nowhere else to go. Often a teacher or other local official would bring a child to Little Hearts; in other cases C.P. heard of situations in the local community and offered to take in the orphans.
Every day C.P. poured through local newspapers for stories of orphaned or abandoned children. Sadly, they appeared all too frequently, each more heartbreaking than the last. One article appeared under the headline “How Long This Darkness?” Three brothers had recently lost their parents to AIDS and had only an elderly grandfather left to support them. The grandfather used to work as a field laborer, but that income was not enough to support three growing boys and he began to supplement his meager salary by begging. Local villages refused to take them in. The reporter ended the article by urging the government and NGOs to come forward and help them. When C.P. called about the children, he was told that he was the only person who had.
I asked C.P. how he could possibly accept the three boys – he was already well past capacity with the twenty-five children living at Little HEARTS. He gazed back at me for a long moment of silence before answering, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”
How do you explain love? How do you begin to describe and comprehend the forces of compassion, faith and dedication that can so define a person that he will spend the hours of his life loving those whom no else stops to notice? Those whom he has no obligation to care about, no reason to work for, and no reward other than the knowledge that he is making some small dent in the endless tide of need.
The best you can hope to do is to stand outside a small, nondescript building on a dusty street in the middle of India, and watch two dozen once-homeless children rush out to greet the man who didn’t allow them to fall through the crack. Here in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where 30% of adults have HIV/AIDS, C.P. Kumar and his family took in 26 abandoned children. The epidemic has created a secondary human rights crisis – the orphaning of children on a massive scale.
These are the silent disasters. For the past fifteen years C.P. has cared for these children left behind in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. C.P. Kumar works as a clerk in the government during the day, but spends most of his evenings with the children.
For hours we played games and sang songs. Eager students brought me their schoolwork and stood by, nervously and proudly, as I pored over it. Most of the children were very young, ranging from four to ten years old, with only a couple of twelve or fourteen. The oldest was an eighth-grade girl called Sutrasini. When she wasn’t playing chess she followed me quietly, watching with the interest an almost-adult exhibits in the actions of a grown-up.
Sutrasini and the others attended school right down the street, and C.P. and his wife Mamatha - along with their own two sons, Prince and Boon - provided a loving surrogate family. Little Hearts was truly a place for children who had nowhere else to go. Often a teacher or other local official would bring a child to Little Hearts; in other cases C.P. heard of situations in the local community and offered to take in the orphans.
Every day C.P. poured through local newspapers for stories of orphaned or abandoned children. Sadly, they appeared all too frequently, each more heartbreaking than the last. One article appeared under the headline “How Long This Darkness?” Three brothers had recently lost their parents to AIDS and had only an elderly grandfather left to support them. The grandfather used to work as a field laborer, but that income was not enough to support three growing boys and he began to supplement his meager salary by begging. Local villages refused to take them in. The reporter ended the article by urging the government and NGOs to come forward and help them. When C.P. called about the children, he was told that he was the only person who had.
I asked C.P. how he could possibly accept the three boys – he was already well past capacity with the twenty-five children living at Little HEARTS. He gazed back at me for a long moment of silence before answering, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”
Links:
Pictures:
Want to support this project's continued work?
Progress
By Jaya Canterbury-Counts - Executive Director, December 19, 2008 03:59 PM
The second floor is nearly completed at Little Hearts ... and a good thing too because we now have 30 children!
Several of the new children (orphans) are HIV+. Stigma is such an issue in Nellore that by mainstreaming these children we are hoping to avoid some of the worst stigma. We believe that all children have a right to a happy life as well as food, shelter and health care.
Several of the new children (orphans) are HIV+. Stigma is such an issue in Nellore that by mainstreaming these children we are hoping to avoid some of the worst stigma. We believe that all children have a right to a happy life as well as food, shelter and health care.
Want to support this project's continued work?
Field Visit
By Jaya Canterbury-Counts - Ex. Director, The River Fund, March 26, 2008 06:20 PM
This was my first visit to Little Hearts and the children certainly stole my heart. My son and I spent some few days with them in January '08. Please read Meredith Landis' update from last August for more detailed information. As the children get older and they are growing every day, the need for a second floor is more urgent. The are literally outgrowing the space they currently have!
The children are well cared for and loved. Even though many of them have suffered so much ... they have lost their parents to AIDS, violence often witnessing that directly, they are happy and they also look after each other. The children are also interfaith ... there are Hindus, Muslims and Christians in the mix.
We loved Little Hearts and the children. Thank you all who have given so generously.
The children are well cared for and loved. Even though many of them have suffered so much ... they have lost their parents to AIDS, violence often witnessing that directly, they are happy and they also look after each other. The children are also interfaith ... there are Hindus, Muslims and Christians in the mix.
We loved Little Hearts and the children. Thank you all who have given so generously.
Pictures:
Want to support this project's continued work?
Little Hearts
By Jaya Canterbury-Counts - Executive Director, The River Fund, December 17, 2007 06:08 PM
I will be visiting this project on the 5th of January and will update more when I return home. These kids have no one but us to look after them. Thanks to Mr. Kumar for his care and commitment to these children. Thank you for your generosity this past year.
Pictures:
Want to support this project's continued work?
Observations from a project visit
By Meredith Landis - GlobalGiving Volunteer, August 13, 2007 08:27 PM
Nellore, a city located in Andhra Pradesh, India has the second highest occurrence of HIV/AIDS in the state. 13% of the 14-28 year olds living in Nellore are infected. Sadly, most AIDS victims die before the age of thirty, leaving behind children and families. Besides the AIDS epidemic, poverty, political instability and corruption plague Nellore.
C.P. Kumar was from a large family of eight children. All eight children lived together in the cramped conditions of this hutch. As a young, idealistic man, Kumar completed his education from a free government school and decided he was going to change the world. When C.P. Kumar returned from school, he became aware of the horrible conditions in which the children in his town were living - conditions even worse than from his own childhood. He witnessed children on the streets while their parents were drinking away their wages and beating their spouses. C.P. Kumar realized that if action wasn’t taken, these homeless kids would cause huge problems for society.
On June 18, 1991, C.P. Kumar opened an orphanage for 10 orphans of HIV/AIDS victims. The orphanage is located on the very site where the thatch hut he lived in as a child was located.
C.P. Kumar and his family spend much of their free time at the orphanage. C.P. Kumar works as a clerk in the government during the day, but spends most of his evenings with the children. With the help of two staff members, the orphanage is now home to 25 girls and boy that range from 2-13 years old. The children attend free government school during the day, and also have tutoring in the morning (6-8am) and in the evening back at the home. Also, there is a pediatrician that volunteers to treat the children as needed.
Future Plans:
With further funding, the Little Heart Orphanage hopes to add a second floor in order to separate the accommodation for the boy and girls. As these children approach puberty, the separation becomes culturally important. Additionally, the orphanage hopes to institute programs that will educate and raise awareness of the dangers of contracting HIV/AIDS.
A recent donation through GlobalGiving of $500 led to the installation of several new toilets and showers in the orphanage.
C.P. Kumar was from a large family of eight children. All eight children lived together in the cramped conditions of this hutch. As a young, idealistic man, Kumar completed his education from a free government school and decided he was going to change the world. When C.P. Kumar returned from school, he became aware of the horrible conditions in which the children in his town were living - conditions even worse than from his own childhood. He witnessed children on the streets while their parents were drinking away their wages and beating their spouses. C.P. Kumar realized that if action wasn’t taken, these homeless kids would cause huge problems for society.
On June 18, 1991, C.P. Kumar opened an orphanage for 10 orphans of HIV/AIDS victims. The orphanage is located on the very site where the thatch hut he lived in as a child was located.
C.P. Kumar and his family spend much of their free time at the orphanage. C.P. Kumar works as a clerk in the government during the day, but spends most of his evenings with the children. With the help of two staff members, the orphanage is now home to 25 girls and boy that range from 2-13 years old. The children attend free government school during the day, and also have tutoring in the morning (6-8am) and in the evening back at the home. Also, there is a pediatrician that volunteers to treat the children as needed.
Future Plans:
With further funding, the Little Heart Orphanage hopes to add a second floor in order to separate the accommodation for the boy and girls. As these children approach puberty, the separation becomes culturally important. Additionally, the orphanage hopes to institute programs that will educate and raise awareness of the dangers of contracting HIV/AIDS.
A recent donation through GlobalGiving of $500 led to the installation of several new toilets and showers in the orphanage.
Pictures:
Want to support this project's continued work?
Update
By Jaya Canterbury-Counts, M.Ed. - Executive Director, The River Fund, May 10, 2007 05:16 PM
HIV/AIDS is spreading quickly in India, with 5 million infected adults. As in other poor countries, this will result in millions of orphaned and destitute children.
With the funding to date, we have built additional toilets on the second floor for the children in anticipation of completing the building to care for more children. At present we support 26 children: Seven children are attending Nursery School which is at a back side street of the Little Hearts. The remainder of the children are studying at the Government School which is just a two minute walk from the orphanage. To date, no children are infected with HIV.
With the funding to date, we have built additional toilets on the second floor for the children in anticipation of completing the building to care for more children. At present we support 26 children: Seven children are attending Nursery School which is at a back side street of the Little Hearts. The remainder of the children are studying at the Government School which is just a two minute walk from the orphanage. To date, no children are infected with HIV.
Pictures:
