Sylvia Holder first met Venkat on the beach at Kovalam almost 30 years ago. The bright but very poor 12-year old boy asked her for 10 pounds after taking her around the village. He said that he would use this money to pay his school fees which his family couldn’t afford to pay. On the spur of the moment Sylvia offered to put him through school and university – a challenge he seized with delight and enthusiasm.

They kept in close touch over the years. Venkat proved to be a hard-working student who did well in school. He went to graduate from Madras University. He became an Italian interpreter and had a promising career ahead of him. Then at the age of 27, just when his future looked bright and all his efforts were beginning to show results for him and his family, he was killed in a road accident.

Determined that something positive should come out of Venkat’s untimely death, Sylvia decided to set up the Venkatraman Memorial Trust. In February 2004, it was not a difficult decision. The local primary school, the Panchayat Union Middle School, was ill-equipped, over-crowded and under-staffed and the Trust initially focused efforts here. Since then things have moved on and the Trust is now involved in many other aspects of education of Kovalam’s children.