Vaishnavi Welfare and Charitable Trust works on the foundational belief that maternal and child health are inseparable. A healthy mother ensures a healthy generation, while maternal malnutrition perpetuates cycles of poor health outcomes.
This conviction drives our work: addressing child malnutrition requires simultaneously supporting maternal health. True transformation breaks the intergenerational cycle of nutritional deficiency, rather than just treating symptoms.
When a child is malnourished, we assume the problem is not enough food. Often it is more than that. The body must break food down, absorb it, and put it to use, and after years of poor gut health that ability is often the first thing to break. Our programmes work on absorption first, so that the nutrition families already receive can actually do its work.
During Kokila's first pregnancy, severe morning sickness meant she could hardly eat. Her baby was born underweight at 2.2 kg. When we met her during her second pregnancy through our Shakthi programme, she was worried. With timely support, her second baby was born weighing 3.2 kg, one kilogram that meant a stronger start to life.
Read Kokila's story →
When we first visited Seva School in the Kalvarayan Hills, children were frequently ill, undernourished and struggling to learn. Through the Jeevani programme, their health improved, illnesses reduced, and classrooms became more vibrant. The change was so visible that 70 more children joined the school through word of mouth alone.
Read Saravanan's story →
Gut restoration, daily nourishment and regular medical care for children and adolescents (6 to 18) in residential schools and shelter homes. Since 2014.
Maternal care from registration through delivery and six months after, targeting anaemia in pregnancy in the Kalvarayan Hills. Since 2023.
Real behaviour change takes years. So rather than spreading thin across many districts, we stay rooted in a small number of communities and work with the same families, the same frontline workers, and the same schools, season after season.
The aim is a model programme that government and other organisations can come and learn from. Knowledge is shared freely, so the impact multiplies through replication rather than through our own expansion.
Supports one mother through her pregnancy, or one child through a year of the Jeevani programme. Every contribution helps build a healthier future, one life at a time.
