My name is Rakshaa. I am 13 years and a student at the APL Global School, Chennai.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in different ways. Perhaps the hardest hit is the daily wage earners, migrant labor, and the financially poor. They are all financially stressed and have huge issues in this situation. This campaign is for children from such homes who suffer from Type 1 Diabetes.

I was surprised to learn that these children who suffer from TYPE-1 diabetes are literally fighting for survival just because they do not have the financial resources to get their daily dose of two insulin injections & other medicines/tests done. The cost of giving them Insulin, BP Meds, Lips, a Glucometer, doing medical tests for Kidney function, Blood, Glucose, etc works out to just INR 15000 for the entire year. That works out to a cost of just about INR 41 per day.

Let me explain this in more detail.

Children with Type 1 diabetes don't produce Insulin (an important hormone produced by the pancreas to regulate the blood sugar levels). There is no cure for this. The child needs insulin to survive, so the missing insulin needs to be replaced with injections. These children need to be given two injections every day, need a battery of tests through the year, need a device called a glucometer and testing strips to check their insulin levels, etc. All this costs just INR 15000/year. This is done by the team at VHS (Voluntary Health Services). This is a massively subsidized cost. They work with and impact about 150-200 children in and around Chennai. If we raise more we can help fund a child's treatment for a longer duration.

We are fortunate that we come from economically well off homes and during this CRISIS it is important that we step up to help these children through these difficult times. I request all of you to support my campaign so that we can also ease their hardship in our own small way.

Lets together save the lives of these kids by funding their treatment costs for an entire year.