Heal Charity shines as a beacon of hope for children in the Andhra Pradesh region of India. Child labor and school dropouts pose a significant challenge. Children are faced with increasing socioeconomic disadvantages and are often deprived of the right to health care, education and essential life skills. Founded in 1992 by Dr. Satya Prasad Koneru and managed entirely by volunteers, Heal’s goal is to impact as many disadvantaged children as possible and end the cycle of poverty.

About Dr. Satya Prasad Koneru

Prasad’s mission to end poverty in India began five decades ago. As a young medical student, he founded the People Service Society to help people experiencing poverty. The society flourished, becoming a medical center, meal service provider, book bank for disadvantaged students and rehabilitation clinic for people with disabilities. After twenty years of devoting his life to those living below the poverty line, he donated his family home to build Heal Children’s Village, an orphanage that originally housed 26 children. After more than three decades, the orphanage is home to 250 children and 16 housemothers.

Heal Children’s Village

Since its conception, Heal Children’s Village, otherwise known as Heal Paradise, has fostered the health and education of children. The comprehensive curriculum at Heal Children’s Village adopts children and empowers them with lifetime skills and knowledge. The children at Heal engage in nutritional education, financial and vocational programs and environmental and sustainability initiatives.

The nonprofit also offers reproductive health workshops, creating a supportive and safe environment for children to learn about adopting safe sexual health practices. As well as educational initiatives, Heal Paradise provides disability programs specifically for blind children.

The Elizabeth Panton-Heal Artificial Limb Center

In 2014, the initiative “built the Elizabeth Panton-Heal Artificial Limb Center (ALC) on the Heal Paradise campus, in partnership with Elizabeth’s Legacy of Hope (ELoH), to provide the health care support that poverty-stricken child amputees traditionally lack.” As of today, there are 10 million amputees in India, with amputation being notably prevalent in the impoverished communities of Andhra Pradesh. This prevalence is attributed to diseases, deformities and infected sores from a lack of shoe access. Generally, disabled children in India are five times more likely to be out of school compared to their non-disabled counterparts.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Elizabeth Panton-Heal Artificial Limb Center has been a source of long-term emotional and physical support. The center has also played a crucial role in providing vital surgeries and prosthetic limbs to 108 disadvantaged young amputees in Andhra Pradesh. The dedicated team at the Elizabeth-Panton Artificial Limb Centre consists of technicians and orthopedic surgeons, each working tirelessly to rebuild and transform the lives of child amputees. The team also hosts clinics in their mobile center for poverty-stricken children who live in rural areas outside of Paradise Village.

– Sapphire Hope
Photo: Flickr