Enable was set up to support disabled children in South India. The photo shows some of the boys at the Kanigiri Centre with the Director of the work in India, Fr Gali Arulraj (back row, 6th from left) and Enable's founders Alison Davis (centre) and Colin Harte (3rd from right).

During a visit to India in 1995 Alison Davis and Colin Harte visited a centre built to care for 35 disabled children in the town of Kanigiri, Andhra Pradesh State, South India, which had just been opened by Fr Gali Arulraj, an Indian priest. They were impressed by Fr Arulraj’s pioneering work, and seeing that he was getting very little support, set up a charity in the UK, now called Enable (Working in India), to fund and develop his work.

The Kanigiri Centre was set up by Fr Arulraj when he discovered that disabled children were frequently neglected in some of India’s poorest villages. The children lived in extreme poverty, received no medical care, had no opportunity of going to school, and faced the bleak prospect of a lifetime of begging.

Extreme poverty in their small communities means that the children’s needs cannot normally be met in their villages. The construction of purpose-built centres close to their villages has been found to be the best way of helping them.

With Enable’s support the Kanigiri Centre grew so that it could accommodate 78 children. This is now for boys only. A second centre, caring for 100 girls, was opened in January 2001 in the town of Ongole, 50 miles from Kanigiri. Temporary accommodation at Ongole was prepared in 2002 for 30 blind children. Our next major project will be to construct a purpose-built residential centre and school for 80 blind children.

We do not have enough places at the centres for all the disabled children in need of care. In 2002 we began an “outreach programme” to provide as much support as possible to disabled children in their home villages. This includes the opportunity to go to school.

At the centres the children receive full medical care, including surgery. Many of the children have polio-related disabilities and operations, costing about £200, can make the difference between them crawling in the dust or standing upright and walking. For the first time in their lives the children get the opportunity to go to school, and are well cared for, receiving nutritious food and proper clothes instead of rags.

Most of all the children are treated with respect and dignity. They can enjoy their childhood and now face the prospects of a fulfilling future. A Scholarship Fund has been set up to enable the young adults who have left the centres to study at college or university, or to get vocational training.

Our UK work is performed by unpaid volunteers and all donations are sent in their entirety to India. All administration costs are paid for by the charity’s trustees and by those who have donated specifically for this purpose.


Recovering after surgery	Enjoying the chance to study

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