On the way from Thiruvanthapuram to Kollam, there is a small town named Chathanoor.  This is the place, where Shrimati Ajithakumari has started an orphanage boarding home for differently abled children and adults. 

Ajithakumari aged 43 has been associated with social service for differently abled children and adults for last fifteen years. She is a single woman with inherent responsibilities for the upbringing for 2 young children. Having been associated with differently abled society, she had an earnest desire to give back to the society, which made here start an orphanage boarding home for differently abled children and adults in May 2014.  The name of the orphanage boarding home is Anandatheeram and is registered with orphanage control board. 

The boarding home has 36 inmates. The lowest age of living inmate is 8 years and oldest living inmate is 52years. 12 inmates are female and rest are male. Most of the inmates are orphans and most of the remaining inmates have been abandoned by their near families at the orphanage centre. 

The orphanage is staffed with 10people to cater to teaching, nursing care, cooking and general housekeeping maintenance.  There are 3 exclusive teachers who teach and involve the inmates with prayers, exercises, colouring exercises, art & craft , music , dance and academic teaching lessons.  Meals are provided 3 times a day with snacks at 11 am and 4:30 pm.  

As the orphanage has not completed five years of operations, it is operating without any governmental aid.  The operating monthly expenses of the orphanage is around 1.5 Lakh Rupees per month.  The orphanage home has so far survived on the intermittent donations being offered by well wishers. They also have a voluntary field force staff for fund raising, but it is not an effective mechanism due to lack of transparency and accountability at the ground level. During my visit to Kerala, I  and my wife had visited the orphanage and met Ajithakumari, her team and the inmates. Seeing the innocence of the differently abled inmates, tears had welled in my eyes.  To ensure that the orphanage continues, I would request the readers to consider donating to this noble cause. I am attaching some photographs and registration details of the orphanage for your easy reading. 

Presently the infrastructure of the orphanage is very small to accommodate the 36 inmates. We aim to build a corpus amount of 5 lakhs, which can help in procuring additional living space and provide the operational expenses for the inmates. 

I look forward to the support of the readers.