The white and green building that houses the Naz Care Home in south Delhi looks no different from the other two-storey houses in the lane—if anything, it is prettier. Inside too, red, green and yellow walls are covered with black and white photographs of beautiful, smiling children who live in the home.
Also Read: Give and take
Help’s at hand
Micro charity
Aasra, Mumbai
Mumbai Mobile Creche, Mumbai
Family Home, Mumbai
Room to Read, New Delhi
Pankhudi, Bangalore
Make-A-Wish Foundation, New Delhi
Arushi (Salaam Baalak Trust), Gurgaon
As I walk up the stairs around 4pm to the dormitory which houses 35 HIV positive children (the youngest is 20 months old and the oldest 15 years), I am greeted with a cheery “Hello didi” many times over. A batch of 12 kids is waiting in the playroom adjacent to the dormitory to start an art and craft activity.
On a previous visit, I had been told by Mita*, 6, that besides paints, I should get some sequins too. I have brought those in three colours—pink, blue and gold—along with small round mirrors, and 30 earthen diyas. In a matter of seconds, the number in the room swells to 20, with some of the older children who had been loitering around joining in. “Mujhe pink glitter milega (May I get pink glitter)?” “Hume broosh nahin mila (I did not get a brush).” “Didi, ek aur diya mere dost ke liye do na (Didi, please give me an extra diya for my friend).” I scramble to fulfil the requests—doling out the sequins, brushes, Fevicol tubes, ice-cream sticks, glitter and paints.
Meanwhile, the children have spread old newspapers on the floor and divided themselves into groups of three and four on their own. Over the next hour or so, between demands for more Fevicol and glitter, the children seek comments from Sonu bhaiya (a counsellor with the home) and me. Their faces light up when either of us compliments them on how well they have coloured the diyas, or how cleverly they have used the glitter.
Most children at the Naz Care Home are orphans abandoned by their immediate families because of the disease. They have come through other NGOs and hospitals. Some have a single surviving parent who is also an AIDS patient and cannot take care of them—and hence has left the child here. “We have a lifetime commitment to them. They can stay with us as long as they want,” says Anuradha Mukherjee, programme manager.