Anantha Ashram Update: The Children

Adriana and I returned from Hosur last week – our annual sojourn to reconnect with my parents, the work that CUP supports from the U.S., which are the projects of Anantha Ashram. As many of you know, the projects include a medical clinic, community health care and education – but the most compelling need and program seems to be theAnantha Ashram Home for Abandoned Children. Compelling because the whole world can’t resist helping a child in need. And because when you think about the stories of most of these children – the drama and sometimes the horror of how they came to us for help; how their families abandoned them, discarded them, put them last on the list of survival priorities – your heart opens wide and you feel a kinship and a protective instinct you barely knew you had.

That was certainly my experience last month during our visit. There are 35 children in the Children’s Home now, ages a few weeks to 20 years. Six of them are infants; two of them were about to be adopted by new Indian families within days of our visit – a very happy prospect. Adriana and I visited during a regular weekday. Arranged in a home setting, the school age children were away from the Home, at school. The pre-schoolers, having had their breakfast, were gathered in the front room, reciting their English alphabet and numbers.. only slightly distracted by me (“Aunty”), my camera (“Aunty… I see photos?”) and my six year old (“akka” or “older sister” literally, a term of respect). As children do, they milled around us, needing our attention, wanting to stand out from among their many “siblings.”


We left them to their lessons after about an hour, wandering into the more protected, sterile nursery to see the infants, who ranged in age from newborn to six months. The caregiver, a sweet lady, swaddled one and took her out of her bassinet for me to hold. The sweetest thing in life is this – holding a wiggly, soft, trusting baby who expects nothing from you except what you give, and instinctively snuggles into you because you’re warm, they feel your heart beating and they need the closeness. And then they look into your eyes to get a good read on you and you are awed by the truth of this; their wisdom which is so much more than yours despite all your years of living on this earth. Adriana hovered nearby, also liking the babies, but not finding them as fun as the older children of course.


Sanjay toddles in to the infant room – hes about 18 months old and was brought to us after being found discarded and covered in ants who were biting him. He needed treatments, which we gave him and he’s adorable and happy in his hew home. As a very young boy, his chances of being adopted soon are high. I sigh, leave the room, cry, return. Adriana sees my red puffy eyes and is worried. I say nothing’s wrong. In fact, everything is very right, in this place of healing, of hope, of salvation. This is a place where things are made right.

Inspired by children; by family

One of my inspirations and motivations for this blog is to highlight the work of Anantha Ashram, my family’s nonprofit charity in south India that helps children, women and families who wouldn’t otherwise receive medical care, a home and education and the chance to improve their health and wellbeing. Each summer, my father, Samuel Koilpillai, the president and founder of Anantha Ashram, provides a report of accomplishments for Anantha Ashram and points out where we continue to need financial and other support. I want to share the key facts and figures with you, in my next few blog posts. Today, I highlight the work of the Children’s Home.

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Anantha Ashram’s Children’s Home continued to provide shelter, nurture and loving care to abandoned and destitute children. The level of services continued at about the same level in most areas—as the following table would show.

There were 34 admissions of new babies and older children in year 2009-10—compared to 26 in the previous year. As usual, most of the admissions were girl babies. You’ll be interested to know that since its inception in 1991 the Children’s Home has taken in 462 abandoned babies and orphaned and destitute children—a truly mission of mercy, made possible by your generous support.
The program to give children in adoption under Tamilnadu government’s mandate was continuing unabated as well. During fiscal year 2009-10, 26 new childless couples were made happy receiving a beautiful baby from Anantha Ashram under foster care agreements. And, for 51 children, their legal adoption was finalized at the courts entitling them to all rights with their adoptive parents—a remarkable accomplishment indeed.

At the end of the year, i.e., as of March 31, 2010, the Children’s Home family had 40 children. Of these, 16 were school-going kids. One of them had completed 10th standard, and another (Kumar, our “first-born son”) had completed “Plus 2” (12th standard). Kumar is now waiting for admission to the professional college. Thus, education of the children is now a significant focus of care by the Children’s Home, and a significant part of its budget. This budget would include special tuition fees for the several delayed-growth-and-development children who are doing poorly in school.

--- stay tuned... more to come!