'..A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor '
-Proverbs 22:9i
'..Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world '
- James 1:27
'..A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor '
- Proverbs 22:9
'..Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked'
- Ps 82:3-4
HUT America plans to create a Don Bosco model of institution for the AIDS infected and orphaned children. Having worked with the HIV people and children for more than 10 years, H UT India has identified 700 children who are HIV infected, orphaned and homeless, out of school and dying daily on the streets.
Housing the children-Individual houses/DormsThe selected children would be housed in individual houses/dorms along with a house mother. We plan to have 10 children in a house. A total of 1,450 HIV women have been registered in the hospital out of which 942 are widowed and destitute. HUT America plans to support the needy, orphaned, impoverished women, who have nowhere to go but live on streets, and foster them to be the house mothers.
A house/dorm would be a 20 ft by 12 ft structure with a kitchen and attached toilets. The house mother would be responsible for preparing the food, with love and affection and taking care of the children. In this model, we try to incorporate a sense of family and security among the kids and try to make them feel that they had never been orphaned. They will have a house, a mother, and their own siblings in the house of their own.
The houses /dorms are planned in a cluster of 5 cottages each, hence forming 4 clusters. Each cluster is an arrangement of houses from a courtyard in the center, thus creating an informal play space for the kids while still providing a visible boundary. This also creates a feeling of community. The houses themselves consist of 2 bedrooms with one for the house mother. Apart from that, there is a multipurpose living space and a kitchen.
HUT America plans to adopt the most underserved, disadvantaged 200 children to give them a decent living with treatment and education. Initially HUT America would need at least 20 such houses as an emergency to have 100 to 150 children housed.
School for these kidsA school would be created on the premises, which will teach children from kindergarten level to X STD under the Indian central government statutory laws (CBSE). The school would be established in an inclusive way to incorporate children from the general community. This would avoid stigma and discrimination and help to foster a healthy approach towards the children.
After School, Technical Education for employment
From its long experience, HUT India has seen most of the kids, even from the general community, take up education up until secondary level and never proceed to higher secondary. The percentage of students pursuing college or technical education is still low and these children often become unskilled laborers, thereby wasting their years in primary education. The state of affairs with the HIV children is further devastating.
Several years ago, the orphanage at HUT India tried to train some of the 14 year old children in job-creating trades such as electricians or mechanics. They studied with a local electrician and we were surprised that most of the children learned the trade very quickly. They now successfully manage the basic maintenance work at the orphanage.
With this experience, HUT America plans to establish an industrial training institute for the kids at our new campus for engineering trades. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) will help an individual to pursue various technical and non-technical courses. Students can be trained with a variety of diploma courses. The minimum qualification required is 10+2. With the completion of the course, many reputable public sector and private sector companies and companies recruit students.
The students will be trained in trades such as electrician, fitter, wireman, AC technician, motor mechanic, radio, television technician (two years), and diesel mechanic (one year). For the girls, under the skill development initiative scheme, training would be offered in tailoring, basic electronics and basic computer operations. Children would be carefully selected for the respective job opportunity based upon their individual health condition.
HospitalIn Tamilnadu, the estimated HIV population is around 0.2 million. Out of that number, nearly 58,353 patients are on antiretroviral treatment and 3,000 are children. 95% of the population is below the poverty line and are unable to access a proper treatment for the day to day infections of the silent killer in HIV.
Though government hospitals provide the antiretroviral medicines free of charge, the treatment for other major illnesses such as Herpes, Candidiasis, Pneumonia, chronic HIV associated lung disease, recurrent severe presumed bacterial infections, CNS toxoplasmosis, HIV encephalopathy, meningitis, and Cryptosporidiosis remain unavailable. A number of poor patients die due of these illnesses, whereas with the proper treatment, they could have been saved. Another major issue is the stigma and discrimination in private health care settings, where the patients are denied basic surgical interventions.
To date, HUT India has registered 2,650 HIV clients in the hospital. More than 90% of them are below the poverty line (living on less than 40 cents per day/@INR 22.45). Some live on the subsidy (50cents/day) given by the government. With this impoverished condition, they would be unable to afford proper medicines for petty infections such as the common cold or diarrhea and eventually they would die. HUT India loses an average of 7 patients per month.
HUT America plans to establish a 100 bedded hospital for the HIV patients, with the state of art facilities for treating all these illnesses. The hospital will have outpatient, inpatient facilities, counseling services, investigations and operative facilities. HUT America plans to operate this on a two- tier cost basis, free of cost and paying (similar to the one followed in the Christian Medical College, Vellore). Poor patients would be given free treatment, and those who can afford to pay would pay a minimal charge for the services. Even wealthy HIV patients, who can afford to pay, do not have access to surgical facilities in government or private setups.
The departments that would be established include;
Palliative care Hospice (Assisted living)The campus would have a 20 bedded hospice for palliative care of ailing patients. Palliative medicine utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, relying on input from physicians, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, and other allied health professionals in formulating a plan of care to relieve suffering in all areas of a patient's life. This multidisciplinary approach allows the palliative care team to address physical, emotional, spiritual, and social concerns that arise with advanced illness.
Palliative care deals with making a patient's final days dignified and letting them die in peace, which, currently is neither available nor offered to the people we are talking about. Invariably, they die on the streets with no one to even take care of their cremation.
Volunteer BlockFor the volunteers we would need to build a volunteer block with a separate campus for male and female volunteers. We plan to have 5 dorms for males and 5 dorms for females, which can accommodate 6 volunteers in a dorm/room (18 by 15 ft). This would be a cozy establishment, with air-conditioning in each dorm, single/two tier beds, common toilet, equipped washrooms, a community recreation room with library and communication facilities, kitchen/dining room with all accessories.
