Helping Children with AIDS in India

Ark Family Ministries is a Mission devoted to Healthy Families. They have a boarding school for children with AIDS who have been abandoned by their families. Bharathi is on the right hand side of this picture.

Bharathi is our first totally orphaned child. If you see her today and compare to how she was when she arrived on December 14th 2005, you will marvel at God’s grace in transforming this little one. Bharathi was born on November 15th 1999. Her father died next day on November 16th due to complications with AIDS. Her mother continued working as a basket weaver until she died in November 2005. It was shortly after her death that friends approached us and requested if we would accept Bharathi in our residential school. Bharathi’s brother was in their children’s home but they were unable to take her in as Bharathi tested HIV positive. As we evaluated the situation and prayed about the desperate need for a proper home for this little one, the Lord motivated us to admit her in Ashirvad School.

To make it possible for her to adjust faster, we kept her 10 year old brother, Sunil, with us for a few days. How she clung to Sunil when it came time for him to leave to return to his children’s home! She was very insecure and found very hard to trust anyone. It is anyone’s guess what all she may have endured in her young life.

But we praise God and rejoice to share with you that she soon became a very special part of Ashirvad School. Her impish, cheerful smile wins our hearts. She has been a slow learner but now beginning to go forward in her studies. Her relatives, also basket weavers, have visited couple times but are afraid to invite her to their homes on account of her HIV condition. We have tried to explain to them how HIV can and cannot be transmitted, but there is no change in their response towards her. During first Summer we invited her brother, Sunil to spend 2 weeks in our home while all the other Ashirvad School children went to their homes or relatives’ homes. Now her relatives take Sunil home during holidays but Bharathi is not included. We were very grateful when Annapurna, our caregiver happily included Bharathi along with her 2 children on her visit to her family in May 2007.

Bro. Jayaraj Chinta of Ark Family Ministries will be preaching this Sunday during the 9:45 AM service at First Baptist Church of Rahway. Learn More about this wonderful mission here.