Telangana NGOs aid kids of Covid-hit family

While orphanages are working for kids who lost their parents, some institutions are also housing kids whose parents are undergoing treatment.

Hyderabad: As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise, a unique problem is arising. Several children, who lost their parents to the pandemic, are in urgent need of shelter. In Telangana several organisations, government institutions and activists have come forward to take in any child, whose parents are either hospitalised or no more.

Isidore Phillips, director of Divya Disha, an NGO that works for child rights, said the situation calls for everyone to come forward to help. “Divya Disha received distressed calls from people last year too. Currently, we are looking at taking in four kids who lost their parents. We are awaiting confirmation from Child Welfare Committee (CWC). If anyone comes across a child in distress, they can contact Divya Disha or the Childline,” he said.

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While orphanages are working for kids who lost their parents, some institutions are also housing kids whose parents are undergoing treatment. SOS Children’s Villages India, situated in Vattinagulapally, has announced that it is ready to provide short or long-term care to children whose safety and well-being have been severely affected because of losing parental care due to the pandemic.

“We are trying our best to ensure that all the children under our care are safe and secure. We are willing to join hands with the government, corporates and the civil society to extend care to children belonging to under-served communities, where families have been affected due to the pandemic,” said Sumanta Kar, Secretary-General, SOS Children’s Villages.

Meanwhile, the Telangana State Department of Women Development and Child Welfare in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is also working towards opening child care centres across the State.

“It is a State government initiative, and we are working on opening two facilities in Hyderabad, and a total of 66 centres in various districts. These centres will be hosting children for temporary care until their parents recover and are discharged from the hospital. Apart from basic needs, we are also looking at conducting fun learning sessions to engage these kids,” said Rakesh Reddy, UNICEF’s Social Policy Consultant who is working with the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare here.

Several calls for adoption/child care homes of these children have been circulating on social media. But such routes can be detrimental to the welfare of children. “We have a help desk dedicated for child care and I would request people to inform about any child in distress on the helpline or the police,” adds Reddy.