A guardian angel who offers hope
A guardian angel who offers hope
She provides a secure nest for abandoned, lost and orphaned children
UPDATED: Jul 7, 2019 11:10 IST
This little bespectacled girl is all of two. She likes meeting people but is too shy. Try picking her up, and she’ll jump right out of your arms. Tanu (name changed) is among the group of 23 children who are part of the Welfare Home for Children in Sarita Vihar. Mostly in the age group of 0-8 years. A few are orphans here, there are others who are lost and some have just been abandoned by their parents for various reasons.
ADVERTISEMENT
Set up in 1979 by Achla Khanna, Welfare Home for Children has been giving shelter to such children from across the city for the last four decades.
I was the youngest in my family and had a lot of love and affection for younger kids. During my college days, I started doing social work, and as a part of it started visiting an orphanage. It was then that I conceived the idea of starting a care home with the intention of taking care of unwanted children, says Khanna whose Home is also an adoption cell registered with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
She opened the Centre with her husband Mohinder Singh, a lawyer, and the couple started with one child whom they received from the social worker of Lady Hardinge Hospital, where they used to distribute medicines to poor patients. With time, the number of children increased.
Police officials also started bringing infants/children who were either abandoned or were found missing from their parents, she says. Apart from being an orphanage and adoption cell, Welfare Home for Children also receives 30 children as part of the Outreach Programme where they conduct remedial coaching for 8-13-year-olds from the nearby slum areas regularly.