Hemalatha is a beneficiary of Commit 2 Change, one of the three girls education groups that Catrinka supports with proceeds of our bag sales.
Hemalatha is from Andra Pradesh, India, and is HIV positive. She lost both her parents to HIV, and her grandparents, who could not afford to support her, entrusted her to a dispensary that brought her to Little Flower Children’s Home in Bangalore in 2001, when she was six.
Little Flower Children’s Home is an orphanage that provides housing, food, school and medication for the children in its care, as well as cultural activities, which are particularly meaningful for HIV positive girls like Hemalatha, who are often ostracized because of their status. Commit 2 Change began supporting Little Flower, including Hemalatha and 79 other girls, when they launched in 2010.
Hemalatha is on anti retroviral therapy, and is thriving, studying for her Secondary School Leaving Certificate and learning dance and music. Through Little Flower it costs $180 to educate a girl for one year, and $655 for food, housing, medication and other support.
Support from Commit 2 Change makes it possible for Hemalatha to continue to thrive, and to dance! That’s her on the left in the photo above.