Along with providing our community members with special needs, a safe place to stay, nutritious food, oppurtunities to get employment, and most importantly love, we are also involved in creating awareness among the community, inviting people from all over the world to live with us, and volunteer. Some of them went on to create their very own organisations based on Sristi’s model.

My name is Karthikeyan and I hail from Pondicherry, South India. I spent 15 years in an orphanage, a very special place that enriched my life immensely. It fosters 111 marginalized children, non-disabled and intellectually disabled. Growing up in our home we were all equal. We lived together, played together, and helped each other out. Everyone had his or her responsibilities. Only in the world outside did our differences become more visible. I could go to school; my intellectually disabled brothers and sisters couldn’t. Later, when we grew older, those of us who were part of the mainstream “normal” folk found jobs and felt integrated into society. But our intellectually disabled siblings were still not accepted and were treated with pity rather than empathy. This behavior towards them made me indignant and unhappy. I felt it was unfair to underestimate their abilities. I felt that their potential is not being utilized to a full extent.