maithri educational & charitable trust


About us

Maithri Educational & Charitable Trust was started in 1991 with the objective of providing financial assistance to needy children to pursue their education. We at Maithri firmly believe that education is fundamental to human liberation and therefore are committed to support those who cannot access this fundamental right easily.

More generally, Maithri works on a number of projects to do with the differently-abled and those that suffer from chronic medical conditions.

Maithri began as a trust set up by Rajaram Shreedhar in 1983. Differently-abled Shreedhar had a dream and an empty pocket. He was interested in supporting differently-abled people in their educational pursuits. Soon his commitment expanded to include children from poor and broken homes.

When Shreedhar started Maithri, he had with him Rs 1000, donated by an old and trusted friend. He attempted to find money for his work, and sporadically he did find people to support his cause. Subsequently, and eight years later, Maithri was registered as a trust. The first major donation came a few months later; a donation of Rs 3000, from a gentleman who was on his way to Saudi Arabia. This money was utilized to educate a visually impaired student.

Maithri went on to identify and assist needy children, and those that are differently-abled. The trust understands needy children as predominantly belonging to economically poor households or from broken homes. In both cases, children find it hard to pursue and complete their school term - poverty and violence, want and discord make it difficult for children to be loved, cherished and guided in their education. Maithri likes to create means and ways through which children would feel wanted and also get to complete their education.

Maithri offers financial assistance in the following areas to needy children:

  • Payment of school fees
  • Acquisition of books, notebooks, uniform and shoes.

However, Maithri's expenses are seldom restricted to these objectives - there are always incidental expenses, to do with medical emergencies, settling family discord and assisting mothers from broken homes to sustain a livelihood with dignity.

We at Maithri have realized that to ensure that a child continues to go to school they need to also invest in the immediate circumstances the child finds herself in - so that the child's dreams are not compromised by her immediate situation. Thus Maithri invests in the child's household, especially in the areas of health and well-being.

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