HYDERABAD: A childhood encounter with a feverish three-year-old in a village near Kurnool set Dr Geetha Yeruva on the path to medicine. Decades later, she and her husband Thomas Reddy Chitta run the Foundation for Children in Need (FCN), Chicago, which supports nearly 1,400 students across 20 locations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Geetha was 13 when she visited a village near Kurnool on a school excursion. There, she saw a little girl lying alone at home with fever while her family members worked in the fields. Unable to watch the child suffer, Geetha and a friend fetched water and a piece of cloth and sponged her body, recalling what her father had taught her about managing fever. The incident stayed with her and shaped her ambition to become a doctor and serve rural communities.
“From that day, I decided that I wanted to become a doctor and help people in rural areas. That experience stayed with me and inspired me to do what I am able to do today,” Geetha told TNIE.
Years later, after meeting while working in rural areas, Geetha and Chitta realised they shared a common desire to help disadvantaged communities. They felt they could reach more people by creating a platform that brought together others willing to contribute to social causes. With support from friends in the US, including those who had adopted children from India and wanted to give back, they founded FCN in 2002.
Today, the foundation supports nearly 1,400 schoolchildren and college students across 20 locations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, providing each student `18,000 annually. It has also facilitated free cleft lip and palate surgeries for nearly 2,400 children over the past 12 years. Its other initiatives include support for 110 persons with muscular dystrophy, an old-age home near Shadnagar housing 50 residents and the distribution of books on Swami Vivekananda to inspire young people.
Chitta’s commitment to social work stems from his own childhood in villages, where he witnessed poverty, discrimination and inequality among Dalits, farming communities and agricultural labourers.
“We strongly believe education is the key to addressing inequalities. Only through education can we bring change and transformation, particularly in rural communities,” he said.
Geetha said the foundation aimed to ensure that assistance reached those who needed it rather than simply distributing money. “If we worked in big corporate hospitals, we might be able to help a few people. But if we started a foundation, many others who wanted to help would have a platform to come together. Many hands make the burden easier. We want to see whether the help is really reaching the beneficiaries. We like to see the smiles and joy on their faces,” she said.
The couple divide their time between Chicago and India, mobilising resources abroad while monitoring the foundation’s work on the ground. One of its key initiatives brings children with cleft lip and cleft palate to GSR Hospital in Hyderabad for free surgery. Some families travel nearly 15 hours from places such as Srikakulam and Chittoor in AP, and Adilabad in Telangana. The foundation arranges their travel, food and accommodation and covers the surgical costs.