Rajalakshmi Srinivasan was an academic and an activist who retired as Professor of Economics from the Ethiraj College for Women Chennai, and spent the next ten years working with the Avvai Home Orphanage and School for Girls Adyar, helping to improve the education of children from the less privileged backgrounds. The Rajalakshmi Srinivasan Memorial Foundation (Raji Foundation) was set up in 2014 in her memory and to take forward her vision and work of supporting the education of children from such backgrounds. Our work with Schools for such children has been a very educative and satisfying experience for the Foundation.

Our efforts at working with schools for children from disadvantaged sections are aimed at two levels:

First that of helping to improve the curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular performance of children while in the school , and second enabling and assisting the children to take up careers or study programs of their choice, aptitude, abilities and affordability once they leave the school. For children from well to do backgrounds attending well known schools with recognised brand names, these are taken care of largely by their family , relatives, social circles, school alumni etc.; most of these being absent for children from less privileged backgrounds. Towards helping to fill these gaps, the Foundation works closely with the school managements, government departments, funding agencies, voluntary organisations, school alumni, etc.

Poor reading abilities being a major weakness of most students from such backgrounds, our Foundation has come up with sets of laminated four page A-3 sized illustrated Story Cards in different languages like Tamil, English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Oriya – called Kathai Aruvi in Tamil, A Cascade of Stories in English, and Katha Jharna in other Indian languages. Schools from different parts of the country have been finding these cards very useful in improving the reading abilities of children in the age group 5-15 years. The Foundation makes efforts to reach these cards to government schools by raising donations from individuals and institutions.

While our focus is on the education of poor children in schools, Raji Foundation has interest in all levels and aspects of education, from schools to universities, and stands for making it useful, creative and affordable to people from all backgrounds.

Raji Foundation is a public charitable trust administered by a Board of Directors and having the 80G exemption from the Income Tax Department, as well as certificate of eligibility for receiving CSR grants.

A short English and Tamil flier of the Foundation is available here