Build An Orphanage
India is known as place of peaceful tranquility. However, after 59 years free of British colonialism this wondrous country has to face yet another battle: AIDS. The ravages of the AIDS pandemic have disrupted the beauty of this country. The orphan population is growing in epidemic proportions in India (current estimates state that over one million children under 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS). An enormous amount of these orphans need immediate care, which is why Living India is building an orphanage in Chandrakal, on the border between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Living India is a non-governmental organization based in southern India that strives to educate Indian citizens, both at home and abroad, about the AIDS crisis in India. In addition to education, Living India is dedicated to providing compassionate service and care for those who are HIV positive, and it is in this vein that they have tirelessly renovated the Chandrakal Hospital. The now fully functioning Chandrakal Hospital, which is the only access to health care for those living in the more than 45 surrounding villages, stands on 57 acres of land just west of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is on this land that Living India, in partnership with Keep A Child Alive (KCA), will create a place of security and care for orphaned children – from the ground up. Keep A Child Alive is a non-profit dedicated to providing much needed ARVs to children across Africa living with HIV/AIDS (www.keepachildalive.org).
The HIV/AIDS infection rate is far higher in the Chandrakal area than other parts of India. Most of India’s HIV/AIDS pandemic has yet to be acknowledged in India, let alone the rest of the world. This sad fact makes the plight of AIDS orphans even more tragic. Like the AIDS orphans in Africa and the rest of Asia, these are children for whom the future is the darkest.
We can not continue to allow children to end up on the street where they will most certainly die with the virus left unchecked and untreated.
There is an urgent need for a facility that will house AIDS orphans, provide shelter, food and education. We must begin the enormous task of offering orphans the health care and hope that will break the cycle of transmission. The Indian government is not providing the facilities that can save AIDS orphans from either death or living lives of high-risk transmission. Living India must step into this void and build an orphanage that will serve as a model of hope and care for millions of AIDS orphans today and tomorrow in India who would have otherwise been condemned to the street.
