The Petralthan Pillaiya Trust was established in 2011, to support children living with HIV. ?

While the initial focus of the trust was on medical support for these children, as time went on and drug protocols for HIV changed, The Trust quickly realized that it was no longer about helping the children medically or helping them die with dignity. It was now about learning to live with HIV.

This generation of children who we support were infected at birth. They are perhaps the first generation of children to look at life with HIV. They have been given the option to dream of education, of marriage and of life, and that is the role The Petralthan Pillaiya Trust plays.

We have been providing them ongoing telephone counselling for the last 15 years. These children live with their families at home, and we are in constant phone communication with them, talking to each child several times a year. We also have a hotline where they can reach out to us if they need anything.

Over years, we've built strong relationships. They know us by name, they invite us for their functions. they tell us when something wonderful happens in their life and they reach out to us in their hard times. We are proud to say that with along with our ongoing counselling and support, we have also provided them with financial support for higher education. It is about mentoring them. It's about guiding them. It's about giving them the courage to dream, the courage to overcome stigma and the ability to look at life with HIV. We brief them and guide them on adolescent issues, including marriage and the ability to have children.

We are proud to say we have over 150 children we have educated, with almost over 100 of them who have graduated and are working and leading useful lives today. We also have many of our children married and what we love to call 64 negative grandchildren.

For a child with HIV to live a normal life, to marry, to have a child, to have a job, to have a home is normalcy - to us that is success. We do not measure success by money they make or the car they drive or the position they hold. These were children who we were not sure would survive and now live as useful members of society. They care for their parents. They look after their children. And they contribute to society. To us this is fantastic, but if you want to measure it in normal terms, we are proud to have placed children in companies such as the TVS group, Wipro, Cognizant and many, many others.

We have more children than our finances can support. And yet we must help them, support them and help them make their dreams come true.

That is why you must support the Trust.