Nestled on a hilltop amid the beautiful upland of Rayakottai, Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu, about 60 KM away from Karnataka border, is ‘Namma Veedu - Centre for Excellence’. The centre, surrounded by valleys, rocks, and hills, is an oasis of learning for children mired in the chaos of HIV/AIDS.
In its initial days, CoK was run from a rented home where the children were given necessary medical care. Five years later, in 2018, ARCOD acquired a 1 acre land in Rayakottai to build Namma Veedu, or ‘Our Home’, dedicated to the welfare of the HIV+ children of Krishnagiri. It included accommodation for 25 children, an auditorium, a kitchen, dining area, and an office. The primary goal was for the children to have a place to stay and get treated for various ailments. Till date, doctors and counsellors from St. John’s Hospital, Bangalore, volunteer once every fortnight to provide guidance and mental health advice to the children. Aside from this, it was also a place for recreational activities to engage the children during festivals and events.
It’s been close to 13 years since CoK was first conceptualised. In these 13 years, we have made significant strides in giving a healthy life to our children. The mortality rate is almost negligible, thanks to the painstaking efforts of the doctors who donate their valuable time! Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), the miraculous HIV medicine, keeps our children healthy; they are growing up to be healthy young adults. With that being taken care of, we decided to take our efforts a notch higher.
In 2021, we converted Namma Veedu into a Centre for Excellence, thanks to the generosity of Saint Gobain.
The sole purpose was for the children to acquire knowledge, learn life skills, and become confident independent adults ready to take on the world without any crutches.
To be precise, Namma Veedu - Center for Excellence is an exclusive career-development programme for girl children in batches of 25. It gives them a broad perspective and opens them up to a wide range of possibilities for a better future. It’s preventing early marriages leading to financial and social independence.
We have also opened the programme for our male children in batches of 25. If things work out as planned we will open it up for economically disadvantaged non-HIV children living in the neighbouring areas.
At present, we have recruited teachers to offer courses such as Spoken English and Computer Literacy, and courses that fulfil their scholastic requirements. An AV room with all state-of-the-art projectors with lightning-fast internet connectivity is a part of the campus. The centre will also have a science lab equipped with a telescope, microscopes, encyclopaedias, etc. The donors sponsor the teachers’ salaries, take care of electricity, internet, and operational expenses. With their unwavering financial support, we will expand the infrastructure to include a sports arena and a jogging track around the 1 acre campus. With that, it will become a mental as well as physical capacity building centre. Currently, we are running yoga and meditation sessions for the children every morning.
The results are very promising: guided by CoK-CFE our children are being recruited by reputed employers, with 4 working as bank officers and 1 as a civil engineer. In addition, 10 CoK mothers have delivered healthy HIV-negative babies, under the guidance of our CFE team spearheaded by Nalini Keshavraj.
All in all, Namma Veedu - Centre for Excellence is an Educational, Vocation, and Social Intervention programme for the underprivileged children. It signifies love, hope, independence, and the promise of a better future. It’s an alluring precinct planted with mango trees and flowering plants. A historical cave and a temple on the adjacent hill are quite an attraction for the visitors of CoK. Also, if rumours are to be believed, then it’s also one of the places visited by emperor Tipu Sultan during his rule!
