“It is 14 years today that our son Akash came home! I still remember that cherub face with twinkling eyes, fist in his mouth. It might sound cliched, but it was love at first sight for the 3 of us, my husband Raj, our daughter Megha and me.

Today, Akash is almost a young man, he will be 15 in 6 months. He has a great personality, responsible, affectionate and, socially conscious (he is @waic_campaign’s youngest working volunteer). He is straight-forward and does not like to mince words. He is a bit intolerant when it comes to in-authenticity and orderliness. Of course, he has his moments, but then who does not.

I have always wondered, how life would have been if he had not come into our lives and to be honest, I am unable to imagine such a life. He is so much like me but also has lot of my husband’s (Raj Ravuri) qualities, so what is that nature or nurture? Children are like sponges; they do not need genes to make up their nature.

Akash and I have conversations about everything. Starting with adoption, to girls, relationships and even sex, we have open conversations. It has been a blessing to be able to do that with both our kids and we see that it is especially important to have a line of communication open with them at any time.

Adopting Akash was a transformational experience for me. It inspired me to take up adoption coaching after I received my ICF certification and my adoption counselling certification. Through this work, I met two passionate women in the child protection space, Smriti Gupta and Protima Sharma and together we started our NGO, Where Are India’s Children.

WAIC as an organization works on creating solutions and awareness to help abandoned and orphaned children in shelters reach the legal adoption pool. Not many people are working in this area and I am glad I am able to contribute to raising awareness about this. As part of this we run an awareness campaign called #SafeSurrender. Akash came into our lives because his birth mother decided to safely surrender him. Not many people are aware of that the Juvenile Justice Act of India allows safe and legal surrender of a child; this allows the child to reach a new family and have a future.

Now, more than ever, it is extremely important that children who have lost both parent to Covid are safely surrendered if no one is unwilling to care for them. The child welfare committee will conduct an adoption inquiry and the children potentially can reach a new family. Children cannot be left in shelters forever. Every child should get evaluated for adoption eligibility. Every child deserves a family and has the right to a family.”

#Family4EveryChild #ProtectTheChildren #AdoptionStories #Covid #inspire #family #motivation #awareness #Hyderabad #HumansofHyderabad