Care&Share was born in 1991, when Carol Faison - an American living in Venice, Italy - visited Andhra Pradesh and decided to sponsor a child. Within weeks of her return home, friends and relatives generously matched Carol’s symbolic donation and sponsored every child living in a boarding home in Manginapudi, on the Bay of Bengal. Thanks to the power of word-of-mouth communication and the dedication of our initial donors, in the ensuing years the sponsorships grew to embrace thousands of children. Today, what had begun as a small effort benefiting a handful of kids in a nearby village has evolved into an organization whose work is having a profound impact on the local community.

In 1997, Carol Faison and Noel Harper founded Care & Share Charitable Trust in Vijayawada, India - Registration No: 242 / 1997. Care & Share Charitable Trust is also registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act for the receipt of foreign funds - FCRA No: 010260151 dated 8th December 1998. In 2000, the organization was registered in Italy as Care & Share Italia Onlus, now an officially recognized "ONG" by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2004, we incorporated Care & Share USA, which later received 501(c)(3) status from the US Government. We also recently founded Care & Share España and Care & Share Deutschland e.V.

Where We Work

Care&Share operates in the city of Vijayawada, in the Krishna District and in the surrounding districts of West Godavari, East Godavari, Guntur, Khammam and Srikakulam. The city of Vijayawada is located in the south-central state of Andhra Pradesh, on the Deccan plateau. Andhra is well known for its legendary dynasties, its rich literature, its melodious Telugu language, its vibrant Kuchipudi dance, the swarming pilgrimage destinations of Puttaparthi and Tirupati, and the recent Ramoji Film City, one of the world’s largest and best equipped movie studios. Thanks to its massive agricultural production, it is often known as India’s “rice bowl.” Today, in spite of the aggressive campaign launched by the local government to transform it into the “number one state” — primarily through the heavy investments in information technology that have attracted the praise of Bill Gates and President Clinton — Andhra remains a largely impoverished state. In addition, it vaunts the dubious distinction of having the highest concentration of HIV infections in the entire Indian Union.

Vijayawada — sitting on the banks of the sacred river Krishna — is Andhra’s third largest city, after the capital Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam. It is inhabited by an estimated population of 1.2 million. With more than 200 long-range trains passing through every day, it is one of the nation’s busiest railway junctions. Moreover, National Highways 5 and 9 — which connect Delhi, Mumbai, and Calcutta with the south of India — bring a steady flow of trucks and buses. 2,500 buses leave from the Pandit Nehru Bus Station every day. Because of its high accessibility, more than 40,000 people — among them, scores of street children — migrate to the city every year. Most come from rural and coastal Andhra to escape underdevelopment, unemployment, water scarcity, or food shortages.