A guardian* angel who offers hope
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.
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.
Q & A
What is the revenue model like?
Our expenses are met by voluntary donations received from corporate sector firms, individuals and sometimes from abroad as we have a certificate for receiving aid from them, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. We also meet our expenses partly from the grant given by the government.
How do you find kids?
We receive children from police, hospitals, unwed widows or mothers with the consent of Child Welfare Committee. We receive children through our cradle’ placed near the front gate of our home where people abandon infants.
How can people help?
People can help us by giving medicines, ration/food items, household items, stationery for the children as well as working voluntarily at our Home. They can do fund raising to meet the expenses of Children Home. We have exemption from Tax for the donors under section 80 G of the Indian Income Tax Act.