The cancer survivor; Hyderabad’s Florence Nightingale

Vivek was brought to Kamalamma Old Age and Orphan’s Home as a three-year-old weak, unwanted and uncared for child. As a young man today, Vivek is pursuing B Com in Railway Degree College and is well equipped to take on the difficulties of life. Giving a platform for the underprivileged is 69-year-old M Kamalamma who is a guardian angel to over 60 odd people of different age groups.

From a 70-year-old to a toddler, an HIV affected person to an abandoned teenager, all get refuge at the home next to a railway line in Tukaram Gate. Kamalamma’s house, a three storied building, was meant to be a home for her four children but now houses ten times more number of people.

“It all started in 2005 when an old woman came to me as she had nowhere to go. Her son joined the naxals, her husband died and she had no home to call her own. I took her in and even before I realized, many more tagged along,” says Kamalamma. Though her children objected initially, all have fallen in line and also help her in her mission.

What makes Kamalamma’s efforts laudable is that she spends all the pension of her late husband who was an A grade driver in the Indian Railways and the house that she built after his demise is used to house the orphans. Apart from a quintal of rice donated by the Rotary Club and another quintal by a good Samaritan, Kamalamma bears all the expenses at the house.

The orphanage needs five quintals of rice per month and all the education expenses of the children who go to school and college comes to about Rs 20,000 per month. All the children go to English medium schools and colleges. Three kids go to St. Ann’s High School. Though a practicing Christian, Kamalamma does not go to church.

She says “I like to go to church but do not have the time. The time spent with the needy and soothing their souls brings me closer to God.” Ger son M Jayakar completed MBA and is now into photography and helps her in her mission. He says, “My mother was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and had to undergo two surgeries.

Since my father was in the Railways, the Railway Hospital came to our rescue.” Kamalamma is much better now and is busy tending to the old and the young. It is normal for children to run away from orphanages but till date not a single child has run away from her home. That itself stands testimony to the work that Kamalamma does.

By:TP Venu