Creating a permanent home for the AIDS orphans of Mangalore is a daunting challenge for Kent Reliance and its partners in this venture - the Medway News, Cordoba Finance and my own magazine, Lending Strategy.
A target of £500,000 is no small sum to raise, especially in these very difficult times, but then the plight of these children is pretty compelling. Indeed, having been to Mangalore, met the children, and reported, we had no other option but to become involved.
Kent Reliance has been supporting the orphanage in Mangalore for three years and while the hope was that the number of orphans would fall as pre-natal care improved (with HIV mums been given anti-viral drugs to prevent AIDS being passed to the next generation), this has not happened.
Indeed, in recent times the number of children in care has rocketed from 29 to 65.
There is also a waiting list and an outreach programme to help children and their parents, often seriously weakened by illness, in their homes. All this is putting an enormous strain on accommodation, staff and finance.
So the bad news is that the number of little children with AIDS seems to be on the increase but the good news is that the children in the orphanage are living longer - some into their adolescent and teenage years and while this very success in the provision of care is obviously stretching resources, we see it as an extra incentive to take the charity that extra mile.
At the moment the orphanage is in rented property and its future fragile. With a permanent home and room to expand, it can improve the care and comfort and above all the security of these children who in the lottery of life have been dealt a pretty shabby hand.
Their energy and exuberance for life is a humbling experience but it is a case of the heart driving the head and if we can persuade banks and building societies to dip into their corporate pockets with the same enthusiasm as I'm sure the people of Kent will support this cause through their local newspaper, then everyone will be a winner.
