How Murali KG Is Father To 220 HIV Positive Children

A chance meeting with an HIV positive child changed the course of Murali KG's life. 

Murali KG, 59, says he is the world’s "biggest father". And he isn’t far from the truth. Murali is appa to 220 children aged between three to 22 years. Murali runs Children of Krishnagiri, an initiative to improve the lives of children with HIV/AIDS. He is the grey-haired guiding light of 220 HIV positive children of Krishnagiri, a district in Tamil Nadu. He shares with us the incredible journey of becoming a father to more than 200 children. 

The Beginning

Murali’s story began 12 years ago. “After completing my law degree, I worked in the corporate world for 15 years and then as an entrepreneur for the last 2.5 decades, mostly working as a vendor for banks to sell and collect. I had managed a Leprosy home in Coimbatore for a decade. So, when I moved to Bangalore, I felt a little lost and wanted to get a similar space to do some social work here too. However, I was not familiar with Kannada and hence had to look for a place with a Tamil speaking population and found Krishnagiri, close to Bangalore,” he says. 

At Krishnagiri, Murali joined a non-profit run by his friend - ‘Gift A Future’. It worked towards helping underprivileged children, primarily kids of daily wage labourers, domestic helpers and drivers who couldn’t afford to pay school fees. Murali would work towards interviewing the children and shortlisting those who needed support.  

“Gift A future was aided by another NGO - the Association for Rural Community Development (ARCOD). During one of my field visits, I met the founder of ARCOD - Mr Keshavaraj. He was talking about the work he was doing towards women's employment and child welfare in Krishnagiri. That’s when he told me that there was a bigger issue in Krishnagiri which was more critical than the education of underprivileged children. He told me that a lot of children were dying due to HIV. While I was just aware of what HIV was, I was clueless about how severe the problem could be, so, initially, I tried to ignore the whole thing,” says Murali. 

Durga, the source of his motivation

Mr Keshavaraj persuaded Murali to accompany him on one of the field visits. “He took me for a drive and brought me to a thatched hut where he introduced me to Durga, a 15-year-old HIV positive orphaned child. She was playing with three other children who weren’t HIV positive and there was a man who was the father of those three children. It came as a shocker when I learnt that he had adopted Durga too. He said that Durga was his neighbour and when her parents died he took up her responsibility. I was amazed to hear that he was a small-time street food vendor at the government bus stop. That’s when it occurred to me that if he could take such a daring step, it would be shameless for me to not take up an initiative for HIV positive children. That’s how my journey began,” says Murali. 

Murali now faced the challenge of identifying HIV positive children around the district. A forum called the Tamil Nadu HIV Positive Network helped. Initially, Murali decided to raise Rs 500 for each infected child by reaching out to his family and friends but he soon realised it wasn’t enough.

“I asked ARCOD to take me to field visits. We saw children were undernourished, they weren’t following any health regime, 90 per cent of their parents had succumbed to HIV and they were orphaned; there were a lot of stigmas and affording nutritious food was difficult. During this process, we did lose a couple of children. I would meet them and come back and then the following week would get the news of their passing away. Those moments were really emotional.”

That’s when Murali decided to first get their medical records checked as none of their medical records were in place. “ARCOD knew one of the doctors in St. Johns Hospital in Bengaluru and she agreed to accommodate my children in small batches. So, every week we would bring 8 to 10 children on the designated day and over some time, we were in control of the situation,” he says. 

The medical assessment pointed out that the children needed nutritious food too. “We arranged for a provisional diet for all the children that included all nutritious food that they needed like black chana, soya, etc and for the last nine years, we have been providing them nutritional food every month.”

How Sreedevi inspired him to give Children Of Krishnagiri a structure

“We never thought we would start a home because these kids wanted to stay close to their biological families. But the second turning point came when we met a child called Sreedevi during our field visits. She was in Class 9 then, lying sick in one corner of her home without anyone to look after her. She had somehow managed to cook in that state. She had lost her parents three years back and lived alone with her sibling. She was in the end stage and on the verge of multi-organ failure. I managed to bring her with me and convinced her to get treated at St. Johns Hospital in Bengaluru. Somehow we managed to save Sreedevi but we couldn't bring her back home as she had no one to take care of her. So, we rented a home in Krishnagiri, hired professional help to care for her, and made sure she could visit her school and study. Gradually, she did extremely well. Her health got better, she completed her schooling and graduation, joined B-Ed this year and was an inspiration for all other HIV positive children. She showed that if there's a determination to do well in life, even HIV can’t deter a person from rising. Sadly we lost her in February 2022 and it was a weighty moment for us. She suffered from cerebral oedema and we rushed her to the hospital but couldn’t save her.”

Sreedevi’s death moved Murali to put his thought into action. At present, the Children Of Krishnagiri (COK) stands on one acre of land, boasting a girls’ hostel, boys’ hostel, auditorium and warden’s quarters. Classrooms, indoor stadiums and more are in progress. 

COK’s Centre of Excellence is Murali’s next focus

Now that the health issue is resolved, Murali has shifted his focus to educating HIV positive children and helping them stand on their own feet. “We have started a centre for excellence and our target is to make a star out of them. They are trained in computer science, etiquette, and hygiene courses, which prepare them to face the world like any other child. Of our 16 college-going children, five have graduated and have joined a training program for the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (UPSC) with a guarantee of government jobs. There are kids who’ve got married and we are working towards making them independent and stand on their own.” 

Murali tries his level best to give a happy life to the children just like any other father would. “Our vision statement was to not let any child die due to HIV and we have stuck to our commitment so far. We have not even lost one child in the last couple of years. The health issue has fairly vanished and they are getting good food. These children have hardly travelled anywhere, visited a restaurant or a movie theatre. We take them out for dinners and movies and vacations.” 

As he grows older, Murali thinks it is essential to get involved in the life of those in need. “Otherwise, we end up worrying only about ourselves and then fear steps in,” he concludes.

All images courtesy Murali KG