RAMU AMMAL MUTHIAH EDUCATIONAL TRUST

Ramu Ammal Muthiah Educational Trust (RAMET) seeks to uplift the underprivileged in society and assist the low-income in attaining a bright and economically viable future. The mission of the organization is to provide educational, vocational, and life skills training to the youth of the Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, and Tuticorin districts of Tamil Nadu. We also aim to provide social services to the low-income of the area by establishing a home for children and the elderly, a physical rehabilitation resident center, and various outreach programs. Shortly after its inception in 2000, and under the guidance of its managing trustee and founder, Mr. S.M. Muthukrishnan, RAMET started the Nellai Institute of Hotel Management, Vallioor. The Institute offers hotel management and catering technology diploma courses to fifty tuition-paying students from the community including career placement upon completion. In addition, RAMET provides free education at the institute to seventeen low-income students and also supplies them with educational materials, uniforms, meals, and housing at no charge. RAMET also provides free conversational English language and computer office skills training with three computers donated by the Korean Pioneers In Overseas NGOs organization – which have benefited fifty students from the community. RAMET has continually expanded its services to effectively cater to the needs of the immediate and nearby communities: it has held a once-yearly free meals program for the last five years for the low-income families of the area; a free HIV/ AIDS awareness program for youth and women was also held in December 2004; fifty homes in one fishing community devastated by the recent Tsunami were rebuilt in January 2005; and free screenings were given to one hundred and fifty six villagers (out of which forty two received free eye surgery at a local hospital) through an eye clinic outreach program co-sponsored with the Vivekananda Kendra organization in July 2005.