Netralayam, Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh:
“Netralayam” in Ananthapur is a non-profit organization for visually impaired girls and women providing shelter, education and various life skills to help them find jobs in mainstream and is being managed by teacher Lakshmi Narayana who is also visually impaired. After discussing the needs of the children, we pursued an initiative to help visually impaired students with financial hardships to get enrolled into a teacher training program. Initially, we started the fund raiser to sponsor 2 students through this program. With the support of all of you "Kind Hearts", we were able to sponsor all 4 students to attend this training by covering their tuition (2.4 lakhs). We are very excited about the career opportunities for these students upon successful completion of this training program. One of our volunteers, Haritha travelled to India in February of 2016 to meet the students and finalize the admission process. We are also tracking the progress of the students for the past year and they are doing well in their training program.
Ashraya Orphanage, Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh:
Ashraya orphanage in Ananthapur is run by a Gentleman, Krishna Reddy wh is taking care of homeless elderly people. He picks up sick and destitute people from the streets of Ananthapur, brings them food and shelter. His family is supporting 30 homeless adults and 2 orphan children with very minimal support from their donors. One of our volunteer from New York, visited this group home early 2016 during India trip and proposed an initiative to help to bulid restrooms and cover some basic needs for this group home. We are able to raise $1,500 for this cause and another volunteer who lives in the same town took the responsibility to oversee the construction and make sure the project was completed within budget. This is a great example where we leveraged the Kind Hearts Foundation website and infrastructure to raise funds for a special project though it is not related to children.
Vikar Vihar, Chittoor Andhra Pradesh:
Vikas Vihar is an organization in Chittoor run to support children with developmental challenges. In summer of 2016, Kind Hearts team discussed the needs of these children with the management and arranged school uniforms for 52 children, provide computer for the administration, water tankers for drinking water, supplies, water bottles and sponsor food for all children and staff. This effort was led by our volunteers and their parents immensely helped with the logistics of the event as they live in Chittoor. We are always looking for opportunities to support children in need.