Breaking the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition and anaemia.
Since 2014, Vaishnavi Welfare & Charitable Trust has worked to break the intergenerational cycle of anaemia and malnutrition, focusing on expectant mothers and children in underserved communities of Tamil Nadu.
"Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. To him we cannot say tomorrow. His name is today."
Our mission
Vaishnavi Welfare and Charitable Trust is a community healthcare organisation working to improve the health of women and children in underserved communities. By combining traditional knowledge with modern medicine, nutrition and community partnerships, we address hidden hunger and break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition and anaemia.
Where it began
Vaishnavi Welfare and Charitable Trust began in 2014 with a simple intervention — daily milk fortified with Ashwagandhadhi churna for children in shelter homes. Over time, we saw that when gut health improved, children were better able to benefit from the nutrition they received. That insight became the foundation of the Jeevani programme.
As we worked with these children, we realised the cycle of malnutrition begins much earlier—with mothers. This led to the Shakthi programme, supporting women through pregnancy to give every child a healthier start in life.
Communities building healthier futures for themselves.
- Every child nourished, healthy and able to reach their full potential.
- Every mother supported through a healthy pregnancy and beyond.
- Communities empowered to prevent illness before it begins.
Go deep, not thin.
The Malayali tribal community of the Kalvarayan Hills has long lived in geographic and economic isolation. Seasonal migration for plantation work, difficult access to antenatal care and poor maternal nutrition have fed an intergenerational cycle of anaemia and malnutrition affecting close to 1,800 pregnancies a year.
Rather than spreading ourselves thin across many places, we chose to work deeply in one community, to show that this cycle can be broken and to build a model that can be replicated in other underserved regions. Today, Jeevani serves children in four locations across Tamil Nadu, with two of its programmes in the Kalvarayan Hills. Shakthi remains focused in the Kalvarayan Hills, where it was developed and continues to grow.
Our Board of Trustees
Mohan Ramachandran
Operations leader with three decades building service delivery, CSR and global mobility at scale; founded the Trust to take on malnutrition in India.
Mangal Nates
IT leader at TransUnion driving its India CSR work, and a longtime employee-volunteering champion focused on health, education and inclusion.
K. P. Venkataramakrishnan
Finance professional with 32 years in corporate finance and mutual funds, founder of Viruksham Finmart, and an Ayurveda enthusiast.
The skills that make "absorption first" possible.
Our work brings together clinical expertise and deep community partnerships. It is this combination that makes our approach possible.
Integrative medical team
Siddha, Ayurveda and allopathy doctors working side by side, the core of restoring absorption before building nutrition.
Hidden hunger is complex. Addressing it takes more than one discipline. Our work brings together expertise in Siddha, Ayurveda, Allopathy, Nutrition and community healthcare to improve the health of mothers and children.
Field & community team
We work alongside trusted wardens, ASHA workers and frontline health staff, strengthening the care that already exists within the community.
Programme & monitoring team
Doctors and wardens tracking health in residential schools and shelter homes, measuring haemoglobin, weight, adherence and birth outcomes, turning care into evidence.
Community programmes.
Around our two core programmes, we pitch in where the community needs a bridge: awareness of government health entitlements, support in accessing screening, and community health drives. These stay deliberately small. We are known for the core mission, and we intend to keep it that way.
In practice
- Helping families learn of, and claim, the health entitlements already available to them
- Supporting access to screening camps
- Community awareness drives on nutrition and hygiene