1. How do you select children for the home?

AIC works in collaboration with local social workers to identify the children for our residential program. Children are selected primarily on the basis of need. We primarily seek orphans aged 5-10 (at the time of admission), however, each case is examined on an individual basis and the child's personal history and circumstances are taken into account. No priority is given on the basis of caste, ethnicity or religion. Rather, we attempt to take in children who show an eagerness to leave the streets and a willingness to adapt to a new life at the home, with a priority for keeping siblings together.

We are unfortunately unable to care for children with any serious degenerative disorders that require extensive monitoring and treatment, such as HIV/AIDS or leukemia. We do not currently have the medical facilities or staff to provide for these children. However, we work with appropriate organizations to find such children placements in institutions that have the necessary expertise and services to provide the proper care.

Children for our outreach program are selected through careful assessment by the caretakers and home directors, who spend many (many!) hours in the field conducting home visits, examining living conditions, investigating referrals from current outreach participants, and interviewing family members of children to ascertain who will benefit the most from inclusion in our program. It's a time-intensive process, but we want to be sure we're helping those who really need it!

2. Are directors paid?

Nope. Despite the fact that directors abroad often put time into AIC that rivals that of a full-time job, and directors at the home have a literally 24-hour-a-day job description, they are unpaid commitments. Come visit the home and meet the children, and you'll see why we do it.☺

3. Does your organization have religious affiliations?

No, we do not. Our organization is entirely secular and we have nothing in the way of a religious (or political, or nationalistic, etc) agenda for our children. That being said, as a part of our strong commitment to expanding the children's worldviews and appreciations for other cultures and religions, we do hold religious education activities for them (emphasis on the education), which includes teaching them about the central tenets of a diversity of world religions, and taking them on field trips to visit various places of worship, such as a local mosque, church, and Gurdwara (Sikh temple).

4. Why are you taking adults to get blood tests if your organization was formed to work with street children?

In working with street children, we have become familiar with the myriad circumstances which require children to work and sometimes live on the streets. In our contacts with many of the children begging at the intersections and train stations around Pune, we often surprised to learn that many children working on the streets have stable families and even stable accommodation. We initially worked to get them off the streets and into schools: providing lessons, school fees, uniforms, school supplies and even nutritional support in order to further their educations and hopefully break the cycle of poverty and inequality which forces children to beg to support their families. However, in working with them and their families, we became aware of the many day-to-day concerns which draw kids away from education, not least of which are their own and their family members' health problems. For that reason, we have begun treating tuberculosis, severe anemia and vitamin deficiencies (to name but a few) among the family members of our educational outreach program. It is our hope that this holistic approach, addressing a number of causes of poverty, will drastically improve the lives of those involved in our programs.