The story of The Kanji Project begins with an Indian woman called Maria Rayappan. In 1993, following a donation from a friend in the UK, Maria opened a children’s home for ten destitute children in the village of Kanji, Tamil Nadu, India. Maria realised that education was the key to escaping the cycle of poverty and St Antony’s School was built with help from UK supporters.
St Antony’s School now educates approximately 1700 children aged from 3 – 16 from many surrounding villages.
The Kanji Project, with its Indian Partner charities, also funds the Sunshine Special School for children with learning difficulties, supports children’s parliaments and homework clubs in rural villages, provides medical aid to the poor and help with disabled rights.
We work closely with our French sister charity, Enfants de Kanji, which also supports St Antony’s Foundlings and with whose trustees we cooperate on decision-making for funding to different projects. Enfants de Kanji was formed in 2003, and has worked closely with The Kanji Project ever since.
