Karnataka Health Promotion Trust has teamed up with the Utthana Charitable Trust dedicated to underprivileged children to support the HIV orphaned and vulnerable children. The project known as the Care and Support for OVC (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children), will initially target Bagalkot district, in Karnataka. The proposed project will extend the support for the children for - Education (350 children), Medical (450 children) and Travel (106 children) components for a period of one year.

Care and Support for OVC programme emphasizes on encouraging extended families, relatives and communities to provide care for orphans, nutritional support, health support, education support and support for OVC.

Nutritional support will be extended to families that are in dire need of basic and immediate support. Health support seeks to ensure that all requirements of children in particular the ongoing support to the various health needs including provision of drugs is met. Educational support aims to support educational needs of children keeping in view the reality that most People Living with HIV families find it hard to sustain the diverse needs of the family given their poor state of health and regular absence from work.

The Utthana Charitable Trust which is the brainchild of Anant R Koppar, head, KTwo Technologies has received considerable support from the IT industry

KTwo Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd, Bangalore supports Utthana in all its charitable activities as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. Through the contributors the trust has been able to provide needy children with a variety of programmes and services to meet their basic needs, enhance their human dignity and raise their physical and educational levels in a meaningful, way.

"We will have focus on empowering or supporting single parent households. The support will be to the single parents (due to HIV) to provide comprehensive care to their children (infected and affected)," stated Anant Koppar. "Child specific activities will be conducted with the use of special tools to assess psychomotor development of infected and affected children, he added.

Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) is a partnership between the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) and the University of Manitoba, Canada. KHPT's objectives are to support activities in the areas of reproductive health and HIV and AIDS, and to support activities and projects that will lead to the enhanced health and well being of individuals and communities in India.

Dr Stephen Moses, managing trustee, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust said that India is the third largest HIV infected country in the world and about 4-5 million children with HIV positive parents. Utthana Charitable Trust support to the vulnerable children in Bagalkot District will provide the much needed relief.