The word “Asharan” has been improvised by putting together two words in the Hindi language: ‘asha’, which means hope and ‘sharan’ that means refuge. Therefore, Asharan would mean a Refuge of Hope – and this is what we try to make for the abandoned and orphaned children who find their way to us. Asharan received its first licence from the Directorate of Social Welfare in June 1997. This enabled us to run the Home but not to place children in adoption. In 1998 the licence, which was for one year was renewed for another year, and along with it, we had the government’s permission to place children locally, in domestic adoption. In December 2002, we were given the certificate to place children internationally. Asharan has the license to house 25 children at the orphanage.
The home provides custody, care, protection, and rehabilitation including adoption of children. It is a great joy to see the children who had gone through a lot of trauma being healed both physically and emotionally at the home. Care for the children at the orphanage is relatively expensive. Most of the children arrive malnourished and in need of special care and medical attention. The orphanage spends heavily on items such as milk, cereals, eggs, and special dietary supplements: utensils, bottles and nipples; detergents, toilet soap and baby oil; clothing and linen; electricity, fuel, and transportation; antiseptic lotions, medicines, laboratory tests and hospitalization; and on-site professional staff such as nurses and paediatricians.
Asharan’s first effort is to restore children to their parents if this is possible. If not, the next effort is to place children in adoption with suitable families, and to give the children within Asharan a secure, loving environment while they stay here. In cases where the child cannot be adopted, the child is transferred to a ‘fit person’ Foster care Home where the child receives the same care and facilities that we offer. The reason for this is that we have a licence to house a limited number of children, depending on the space available with us, our objective is adoption, and for these reasons, we transfer the non-adoptable children to Foster Care Homes.
Children are brought by the police, left at the gate, or in cradles by unknown persons. Some are transferred from hospitals where the parent abandons the child. Often children are relinquished directly by their parents who are unable to take care of them because of one reason or another.
Rishi
A wonderful boy was born to an unknown mother in one of the hospitals in Hyderabad. This child who was later named Rishi was born with different congenital defects of his urinary bladder and urinary system. Rishi came to Asharan orphanage in 2004 when he was four years old. Till then, he had already gone through three painful surgeries to rectify h... More >>
