A hospice in south India that cares for children born with HIV is to undergo a massive upgrade thanks to the intervention of a local charity.

Mission4Changes recently signed off on plans to modernise and expand the Assisi Snehalaya hospice, allowing it to care for a maximum of 30 patients rather than its current 16.

The hospice cares for abandoned children who are diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Some have reach the hospice after years of horrific abuse.

Apart from works to renovate and expand the facility, the plan is to also install PV panels and a water harvesting system onsite, helping the hospice on the road to becoming self-sufficient.

Works are expected to begin in June.

Founded in 2004 by Maltese Franciscans, the hospice is one of two facilities ­that receives aid from Mission4Changes, a registered Maltese voluntary organisation set up by Anselmo Bugeja. The other is the St Jude India-Malta Founding Home, an orphanage for abandoned children established by Maltese sisters in central India in 1956.

The NGO finances the costs of caring for children at the two facilities and also bankrolls infrastructural projects at the  two facilities.  Over the past three years, it has completed rain protection, rain harvesting and water filtration projects at the sites and also purchased ventilators for child patients at the HIV hospice.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it much more challenging to continue supporting these children, some of whom need medication and medical treatment,”  Bugeja said. “Since the start of the pandemic, the cost per child has tripled.”

Bugeja urged people to continue supporting the charity’s work by calling on the fixed donation numbers below or by using the BOV mobile app and donating any amount to mobile number 99476526.

€5– 51502030

€10 – 51602032

€20 - 51002034