Sneha Charitable Trust belongs to the Camillians, an international faith based organization that is exclusively involved in the health care field for the past 450 years. The Order of the Ministers of the Sick, popularly known as Camillians, is a Religious Institute founded by St. Camillus de Lellis. The Order is committed to quality and comprehensive health care of the society with a preferential option for the poor sick. It was in 1582 Camillus had the first intuition or inspiration to organize a group of good pious men, who for God’s love, would serve the sick with that charity and loving kindness that only mothers are capable of for their sick children. Pope Sixtus V, with the brief “Ex Omnibus”, of March 18, 1586 , approved the new foundation, with the official name of the Company of the Ministers of the Sick. Later, on September 21, 1591 Pope Gregory XIV elevated the Company to an Order through the bull “Illius quo pro gregis”.
Camillians in India remained as a Mission of the Lombardo Venetian Province until 1997. In 1997, we became a Delegation of the mother province. Now the delegation is growing especially in developing its ministry activities, witnessing our unique charism of serving the sick.
The trust has a preferential option for the marginalized sick from the beginning itself and currently it is involved in HIV/AIDS issues in various countries. In India, the Camillians began their activities in 1997 with the starting of Snehadaan (a source of love) in Bangalore as a Care and Support Centre for PLHA. In 2000 we started another Centre (Snehasadan- An Abode of love) in Mangalore adding also a component for the care of HIV infected children. In 2004 we established another Centre (Snehakiran- A ray of love) in Eluru, W. Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and in the same year a new initiative (Snehatheeram - A shore of love) took shape in Ernakulam, Kerala. In 2008, we opened one more centre called Sneha Agnes at Nagpur in Maharashtra, the latest one in the string.
In 2003 we established a trust namely Sneha Charitable Trust, specifically to coordinate all our HIV/AIDS initiatives in India under the banner, Snehacare. The aim of the Sneha Charitable Trust is to provide holistic and comprehensive health care to people in general and the marginalized sick in particular. The organization gives a priority for the palliative care of PLHA in their end stages, keeping in mind our tradition to care for the dying.
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