When change came from chai and chit-chat

Maybe the rain had something to do with it, the death and destruction that it brought in its wake. This was well before the December 2015 floods. In November 2009, rain had battered roads in several parts of Chennai, causing death and damage to property and bringing daily life to a halt. 

Five friends who met regularly at a tea kadai to rave and rant about all the ills dogging society — R Kumaresan, P Mu Sreekanthan, K Vanchinathan, S Saravanan and AR Chandrapandian — now decided to get together and be the change they wanted to see around them; to help the poor, to be a Maatram or means to make a difference to their lives. They formed the Maatram Educational and Charitable Trust in 2011, their mission being to offer deprived children and young adults a chance to integrate into mainstream society. 

“From an initiative aimed at ensuring funding for the education of deserving students, Maatram Educational and Charitable Trust has spread its wings. We now also fund medical emergencies and construct classrooms. We have started taking up environmental work — during weekends, our volunteers help residents clean the Perungudi lake as well. We train and help individuals start small entrepreneurial ventures. And in the last few years we have also taken up the cause of animals,” says R Kumaresan founder and president of Maatram Educational and Charitable Trust. 

“Many of us have high pressure jobs and businesses, but what unites us is the zeal to bring about a change in society. There is no point in complaining about how there is poverty or how the concerned authorities are not working efficiently. It is about how we can do something to bring in the change,” says K Vanchinathan, who gave up his career as a software professional to work with the trust. After five years of operation, the trust has successfully managed to cover six districts of Tamil Nadu and has over 2,000 volunteers. “Every child has the fundamental right to get an education to uplift their socio and economic development in today’s society. 

So Maatram channelises to children all that they need. Till date, we have provided more than 6,500 school kits for school students,” says Kumaresan. They accept both donations and sponsorship for funding children’s education. Talking about the road ahead, Kumaresan says, “We are planning to provide free education for needy students, those who are great in sports. We are also looking forward to training them in their respective sports so that they can pursue it as a career in the near future. Apart from this, we are planning to set up our own blood bank for medical emergencies and take up solid waste management in a big way.”