Insight
About Zerah
Foundation
Two years ago, four dedicated and dynamic women from different walks of life decided to set apart some of their time, energy and resources from their homes and offices and step forward to support a larger community outside their immediate social and familial circle – a community of needy, impoverished and marginalised people; to give them a helping hand to uplift themselves from the pitfalls to which society has segregated them into.
Felishia and Reena, Rupa and Thulasi – these are the people who sowed the seed of goodwill and compassion to bring forth Zerah Foundation, an organisation to support and uplift the downtrodden members of society. Zerah, still in its infancy has already begun its good work and has grown now into a tender sapling.
Through the striving faith of these four visionary women, Zerah Foundation was launched. It is akin to a healthy seed sown in good soil, hopeful to reap a harvest of purpose filled, happy and goal-oriented community, living, working and contributing to the betterment of their families and society. A community, which in turn, can bring about good and positive changes in the lives of people who are socially and economically in the margins of society just as they had once been.
MEMBER
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Felishia Freddy
A teacher of Hebrew language has taught Hebrew to hundreds of students, a certainly foreign tongue to most Indians. Yet, Felishia’s empyrean expertise in the language has drawn students from far and wide to seek her tutelage. Her command of English and other Indian languages has facilitated this wider audience. In spite of her busy teaching schedule, Felishia finds time to serve the community at large.
Reena Thomas
A former banker and now an active homemaker, devotes much of her remaining hours providing solace and support to other women and children who are not as fortunate as she had been in life. Reena also believes in a life-long learning principle and finds time to learn Hebrew, to keep abreast with the youth she is mentoring
Rupa Rachel Mary
A teacher in a government school looked beyond the four walls of her school compound and found numerous children who are not as privileged as her own students. She decided to share her time and teaching skills with them.
Thulasi Shankar
Homemaker and wife of a Pastor came forward to participate in a world beyond her church premises where the lonely and the downtrodden men and women need a comforting word and an encouraging nod to realise who or what is meant by the word God.
Our Vision
Our vision is to be part of a community where every human being lives and works with dignity, decency and confidence, supporting the elderly, cheering the youth as they strive forward in life. A community where and young children are taught lessons and life skills. We want to apply the principle of Ubuntu, a native African term for “extending humanity towards one another as each one exists because of the other.”
Our Mission
Another drop into the ocean does not appear to make any difference to an onlooker standing at the shore, but deep down in the waters ripples have been created and oceanic life impacted. So too will our mission appear in the larger context of international charity organisations which are impacting lives in many positive ways in the field of education, empowerment of women and children and caring for the sick and the elderly. Yet we hope to serve a smaller community in our city and neighbourhood with similar intentions. We are looking forward to engage, encourage and empower the youth, women and children and the elderly who are denied the rights to education, work and health due to poverty and other related factors.
Charity, that much-abused word in modern lexicography is really about caring for one another and not about patronizing the other with oneself standing on a dais. It is not ‘charity’ in the modern terminology that people require, but caring minds to develop their divinely-endowed charisma, which in other words means ‘talent’, innate in each and every human being born on this planet.
Our Programmes
To engage the marginalised section of the society in purposeful and goal-oriented work that will bring forth a harvest that can benefit both the individual and society.
Most of our people are ignorant of their inherent talents and skills and develop a herd-mentality over the years of toiling as beasts of burden for their daily bread. So it is necessary to harness their talents towards realising their dreams and fulfilling the unique purpose of their life on earth; to enable them to lead respectable lives.
To provide encouragement towards such labour by extending education, life skills-training and opportunities to children and youth.
Our children and youth, the custodians of the future need a more egalitarian society to live and work with than the one we are encountering in the present. That would be our legacy we leave behind for them. Zerah Foundation will work with children and youth who dropped out of schools and colleges due to poverty and other unforeseen circumstances. It will focus on supporting them to continue their education and also provide the youth with opportunities to join in skills-training courses. Thus our young men and women can look forward with confidence to a purposeful future.
To empower women to lead fruitful and fulfilling lives, contributing to their families and society.
After 75 years of India’s independence, our women still fear to walk the roads at night. It is most disheartening to know that half of the human population of the earth which comprises of the female gender face discrimination based on education, work, sex and health. Empowering women will go a long way towards the betterment of society as a whole. Endowing them with confidence can have far-reaching effects towards a healthier next generation. Women from all walks of life – single, widowed, elderly, differently-able must be equipped to find their place and purpose in society. To the Foundation’s credit, a stitching unit is functioning in Chemmenchery and 75 women have already been trained. Another unit is functioning in Kannagi Nagar. The residents of these villages do not have basic conveniences like water supply or bathroom facilities.
To care for the environment and encourage the children and youth to plant a tree every year on their birthdays and tend for it throughout the year.
Man is duty-bound to protect, care and utilise according to his need both the animate and inanimate natural resources of the earth. Unfortunately this is not so in our consumer-oriented society. More often we deplete our forests, our rivers and rocks, creating global-warming, floods and landslides. It is about time that we repair the damage and augment our natural resources for the future generations.