The Home of Hope houses more than 700 poor and homeless people in Bengaluru.
The Home of Hope in Bengaluru, which looks after hundreds of poor people, is facing its worst water crisis in 20 years. The Home's borewell, in the rocky area near Hennur Road, has run dry and water is being brought in tankers every day to meet the needs of its 700 inhabitants.
While the Home of Hope is within the limits of the village panchayat, there is no water connection. The founder of the Home, T Raja, claims that when he approached the panchayat for a connection, they told him that there wasn't enough water for their own needs.
"They say we don't have water here," says Mr Raja.
"Every day, we pay Rs 2,400 for two tankers of water... We need a lot of water. We need more than 20,000 litre of water," he adds.
Mr Raja, a former auto-rickshaw driver, now hopes that he will be allotted land closer to a lake where, at least, a borewell could yield year-round water.
The Home of Hope is a house for poor, needy, homeless and abandoned people. The charity runs on donations, which is usually in kind. Inspired by Mother Teresa, Mr Raja started helping poor and needy people in the 1990s.
"When I drive, I see a lot of people lying naked and hungry. They are abandoned and homeless; they have nowhere to go. Some even count the last moments of their life. I saw such people and decided to do something about it," he says.