This video from World Without Orphans tells the story of Anu, who was abandoned as an infant and grew up in a large institution in India, later opening her own home for orphaned and abandoned girls in India to help girls like her, only to realize that this was not the best way to care for the children. "Growing up in a huge orphanage among 2,000 girls was not a very pleasant experience," says Anu. "I felt like I was a lost child, unwanted, and I cried myself to sleep every night hoping and longing to have my own family."
After fifteen years of running her own children's home, Anu began to look for other strategies to care for children. "We felt that we need to come out of the residential and get into the community, actually going to the root cause of these problems why children are placed in an orphanage." The organization began to work within the community to provide education, food, medical care, and a way for children to remain in families. She began to teach skills to help families gain an income and started community schools in two locations.