Nurturing Hands for India

How We Do It

A Suite of Programs focusing on Maternal and Child Health.

• Little Hands: The objective is to serve poor pregnant women during the pregnancy and the critical first two years of life of their children. Help is desperately needed. In 2016, five women in India die every hour during childbirth, according to the World Health Organization. This Program supports four prenatal visits, care during labor and delivery, nutritional supplementation, health education. Much of this service is carried out through Mothers’ Clubs in rural and tribal localities. The first thousand days of life are critical and nutrition makes a large contribution to that. The expectation is that participants in the Little Hands effort will experience lower infant and maternal mortality.
• HIV Care: Many of the Healing Hands for India beneficiary organizations also support the care of people living with HIV infection who are cared for at the Karunalayam Care Center in Warrangal of Telengana State. This care includes antiviral medicines and drugs for opportunistic infections, as well as nutritional, psychological, and spiritual support. Those at the end-of-life receive compassionate Palliative Care.

Nurturing Hands also supports the continuum-of-care services to orphans and vulnerable children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in India. The project provides physical, psychological, and social support to 120 infected/affected children. These children live in institutions run by priests and sisters. Because the immune systems of these children are compromised, their nutritional needs are greater. Support for these children is $75 per month or $900 per year.

In-depth look…Karunalayam- a Home for those who are HIV-Positive

The Indian Missionary Society (IMS) is an indigenous congregation of Priests and Brothers founded in 1941. The congregation, through the ministry of 250 religious, renders services in 68 centers spread over 29 dioceses in India. The congregation is administered through two provinces with the Central Administration situated in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. IMS is committed to the cause of poor, marginalized, and deprived individuals and is mainly involved in social development activities.

The IMS has been working in Warangal diocese, Telangana since 1985. The HIV/AIDS interventions of the congregation were initiated in 2002, through its Care and Support Centre – Karunalayam located at Karunapuram, Warangal.

In 2002, Karunalayam began with 10 beds to provide medical services to HIV/AIDS infected and affected people. In view of the demand for services, as well as efficiency of the Institution in providing quality care, the infrastructural facilities were expanded to enable the Centre to serve around 50 People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) .

In-depth look…Karunalayam Children’s Home

Karunalayam Children’s Home was established in September 2006 to care for children who are HIV positive and whose parents had died from AIDS. Many of these orphans could not return home because of severe skin infections and various other illnesses. Some of them were expelled from families after the death of their parents. Responding to the great demand, the Centre expanded the Children’s Home. At present, there are 169 HIV/AIDS infected and affected orphans under the care of Karunalayam.

In India, most HIV infected children do not have living parents and dwell with their grandparents. Commonly the grandparents are not able to educate their grandchildren due to poverty. They are also not able to provide medical and nutritional support. Most of the children with HIV are born to mothers with HIV or were transfused with infected blood. When a mother becomes infected with HIV, her children often suffer from poor nourishment and care. They tend to drop out of school and become street children and child laborers. The Centre has recognized these poor outcomes and has responded by developing a strong emphasis on children throughout its entire HIV/AIDS Program.

Today many of the children who have been cared for by the Centre are on their way to professional studies.  Healing Hands for India  is a supporter of the work of Karunalayam.

The annual cost for a child from the Centre to attend school is $750. The cost is high because these children require a high-quality diet and medicine in addition to coverage for the school fee and stationery. Children who are coming from lower social classes are helped by the government with school fees. Some local benefactors provide food for the children as well. On average $ 90,000 is required to support this institution annually.

As the years go by more and more of these children will undertake professional courses and hence they need to be supported as well.

Healing Hands for India endeavors to raise $1,000,000 in funds to benefit this noble venture.