Kathy at the home with some of the boys
The Neem Tree Trust became a registered charity in August 2003.
Its objects are:
- To advance the education and vocational training of the residents of a disabled boys’ home located near to Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, South India.
- To support the work of St Luke’s Leprosarium, Peikulam in the District of Thoothukudi in caring for leprosy patients and their children.
- To relieve poverty and sickness in the Tirunelveli district and its surrounding area of Tamil Nadu.
The creation of The Neem Tree Trust was the result of Kathy Miller’s first visit to India in September 1999 when she travelled with an organisation called Teaching & Projects Abroad, www.teaching-abroad.co.uk which sends volunteers to various countries to teach conversational English in schools.
After a month teaching at a village school near Madurai she was given the opportunity to spend time at a disabled boys’ home near to Tirunelveli. In this totally different world the boys showed her, what she had always suspected, that material goods are not necessary in order to be happy.