India has always struggled with providing facilities for the terminally ill. Whether for the aged or mentally unwell, palliative care is an arena in which we are sorely lacking. The hope is that people whose days are numbered will be provided the opportunity to live them out in peace and comfort. While every terminal case comes with a double dose of heartbreak, some of the most tragic cases are of children living with HIV and AIDS. Many children who suffer from this disease find themselves abandoned by families who don’t care to bear the financial burden of medication or treatment. In 2010 the Italian not-for-profit architecture studio, Made in Earth joined forces with Indian children’s charity Terre des Hommes Core Trust in order to give some of these young patients a place to call home. The result was Casa Rana, a foster home located in a village near Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. The building itself is a plain rectangular structure but that’s the only ordinary things about it. The walls are brightly decked in shades of pink, yellow, red and orange with a surrounding wall of bamboo. The bright colours symbolise hope and a joie de vivre they hope to bring the children, while the bamboo wall speaks to inclusion and the sense of family that Casa Rana brings to their lives.

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