Category: Founding Story

  • How it began at Rajasthan Mahila Kalyan Mandal Sanstha (RMKM)

    It was a natural disaster that lead to the setting up of Rajasthan Mahila Kalyan Mandal Sanstha (RMKM). Back in 1975, a flash flood hit Ajmer.The city was submerged and as recourse, the district administrator had provided relief to the affected in a secondary school – the Topdara Senior Secondary High School; as it was…

  • How it began at Annamrita – ISKCON Food Relief Foundation

    The ISKCON Food Relief Foundation prepares 12 lac meals every day. That’s quite a feat. But this is not one that has been achieved overnight – it’s taken a decade of persistence and hard work to reach here. Spend a couple of hours, just as I did, with Shri Radhakrishana Das and you’ll be amazed…

  • How it began at Apna Ghar, Bharatpur

    Apna Ghar (Our Home) was set up in 2000 by Dr. Bhardwaj and his wife Dr. Madhuri. Dr. Bhardwaj was born into a farming family in Sehroli Village, Uttar Pradesh. He distinctly recalls the incident, though it happened when he was just 12 years old, that prompted him to spend the rest of his days…

  • How it began at Vatsalya, Jaipur

    Vatsalya is a Sanskrit word which means ‘unconditional motherly love’; the organisation was registered as a charity in 1995. Mrs. Jaimala Gupta grew up in a well off family and it was a childhood dream of hers to work with street children and improve the quality of their lives. Her husband Hitesh also shared this…

  • How it began at Rural Health Care Foundation

    Rural Health Care Foundation (RHCF) is an NGO that provides affordable and sustainable primary healthcare to low income groups in West Bengal, having reached out to over 10 lakh patients till date. It prides itself on its organisational working model that is scalable, sustainable and can be replicated and applied to different rurally deprived communities…

  • How it began at Janmitram Kalyan Samiti

    Not many people have the courage to give up a secure job to take the path less trodden. Manish Singh is one of those people. An officer in the Chhattisgarh Forest Department, he gave up the position in 2009, after 13 long years of service. While we trekked through fields in Kharsia block of Chhatisgarh,…

  • How it began at El Shaddai Charitable Trust

    El Shaddai was founded by two individuals from very different backgrounds. They lived on opposite sides of the world but shared the same idea. One of them is Anita Edgar , a grandmother, who lives in Devon, UK. In December 1996, she took a last minute holiday to India to rejuvinate from her long working…

  • How it began at Association for Non-traditional Employment for Women (ANEW)

    The Association for Non-traditional Employment for Women (ANEW) was conceived by the management of Paracor, a New York based private equity firm. The inspiration for ANEW came from an organisation in the USA named Non-traditional Employment for Women (NEW). Mr. M.K.Kumar, the then Chairman of Pierce Leslie India Ltd. and a member on the Advisory…

  • How it began at Disha Foundation

    Disha Foundation was established in March 1995 by Mrs. P.N. Kavoori, who was a teacher at and then principal of a mainstream school for 40 years. During these four decades, she witnessed children with disabilities and the obstacles they faced. She says, “I had been principal of Sawai Mansigh Mahavidyalay , Rajasthan. I used to…

  • How it began at ASSIST

    A Belgian Jesuit started it all. But not in the way you think. Before ASSIST Mr. Jashti Ranga Rao, one of ASSIST’s founders (now Operational Director), hails from the town Vetapalem in Prakasam district. Long before ASSIST was born, he was hired as a typist in VRO, an NGO founded in 1971 by a Belgian…

  • How it began at Chaithanya Educational and Rural Development Society

    Mr. Narra Srinivasa Rao is a simple man from an agricultural background. When you see his work, his involvement with his projects, and the office he maintains, it is impressive how one individual can get so many things done. Clearly, all one needs is a strong desire to create social change. Married with two kids,…

  • How it began at Rural Development Foundation

    I met Mrs. Errabelli Vandita Rao in her lovely Hyderabad home, which was done up with a classy rustic theme, with a few artefacts brought in from her ancestral house in Kalleda, Warangal. Although I was earlier kept informed of how Rural Development Foundation was born as an initiative of her family, I wanted a…

  • How it began at SOS Children’s Villages of India

    On June 23rd 1919, Hermann Gmeiner was born into a large farming family in Vorarlberg (present-day Austria). When he lost his mother at the age of five, his elder sister Elsa took on the responsibility of caring for the younger siblings. He missed his mother tremendously and often used to express this feeling as, “There…

  • How it began at The ISKCON Food Relief Foundation

    The ISKCON Food Relief Foundation feeds 12  lac school children every day. That’s quite a feat. But this is not one that has been achieved overnight – it’s taken a decade of persistence and hard work to reach here. Spend a couple of hours, just as I did, with Swami Radhakrishana Das and you’ll be…

  • How it began at Kiran Society

    India’s poverty hits many people, especially those who come to the country for the first time. It was no different for Ms. Sangeetha J.K., when she came to India (to Bangalore) as a nun with the Little Sister of Jesus. This was back in 1972. She had come to the garden city of Bangalore from…

  • How it began at Shramik Bharti

    A 25+ year old organisation is bound to have a rich history and in Shramik Bharti’s case, this has been pieced together after my chat with 2 of its 7 founders – Ganesh Pandey and Usha Varkey. The other founders are X. As I learnt, it was their association with trade unions and working for…

  • How it began at Maitri, India

    While Maitri was officially registered in 2005, it all started in the year X. At that time, Col. Bhopinder Singh was working with the army, and was posted in Shillong, Assam. It was during his tenure here that his wife, Mrs. Winnie Singh came to learn that HIV/AIDS was quite prevalent among the civil population.As…

  • How it all began at Janaseva Foundation

    “Interaction with the poor reveal their needs and needs lead to our  actions” says Dr. Vinod Shah a Gastroenterologist by profession and founder of the Pune-based Janaseva Foundation. A disturbing interaction while he was interning at Sassoon, the city’s government hospital, lead to the birth of this foundation. While leaving the hospital at the end…

  • How it began at Paripurnata Half-Way Home

    The main force behind Paripunata Half-Way Home is Dr. Joyce Siromoni. A medical graduate (1954) from Christian Medical College, Vellore and D.(Obst.) RCOG from London (1960), Dr. Siromoni has worked in various hospitals in the U.K. and India. She has also been involved in various community health programmes including care of leprosy patients. In 1967…

  • How it began at Teach For India

    In the 1980s, a young Tufts college graduate, Shaheen Mistri, who had been brought up abroad, relocated back to India, with the aim to end the educational inequity she witnessed in her visits to the slums in urban India. Shaheen went on to start the first Akanksha Centre in 1989 to combat the inadequacy in…

  • How it began at The Akanksha Foundation

    Akanksha began in 1991 with a simple idea. There were thousands of slum children who needed and wanted to be educated. There were thousands of college students who had the energy, enthusiasm, and time to teach. There existed pockets of available spaces located in schools that seemed ideal teaching environments. The simple idea then, was…

  • How it began at Sankara Eye Care Institutions

    The history of Sankara Eye Care Institutions is steeped in belief and perseverance. Its story goes back to the 1970s when a young doctor with a flourishing practice in Coimbatore decided that there was something more he ought to be doing as a medical professional. At that time, he was not clear what he wanted…

  • How it began at Sshrishti

    by Yashika Sharma My first question to Ms. Sanghamitra Bose, CEO and Founder of Sshrishti was,“Why the two S in Sshrishti?” She said, “While we were driving to get ourselves registered as an NGO, it suddenly hit me that they would ask for a name and I don’t have one! I kept on thinking and…

  • How it began at ACCESS

    ACCESS was set up by Mr. Thomas Swaroop and five friends – Noelenli Marshal, Francis Kumar, Julie Swapna, Navaneethamma, Padmini Hastings -back in 1992. It was born in response to the neglect and exploitation of children in the stone quarries of Bangalore. Born and brought up in Bangalore, Mr. Thomas Swaroop grew up in a…

  • How it began at Udayan Care

    by Yashika Sharma Udayan Care is a Delhi-based NGO that, since 1994, has been painting the empty canvas of destitute and abandoned children, women and youth with bright, vibrant and permanent colors. Who could have guessed that behind the commencement of this wonderful cause is a painful memory, a faint violet image that never ceases…