Every year, about 60,000 young orphans are forced to leave childcare institutions when they turn 18 and face an uncertain world, without any place to live or any means of employment.

At WeLive Foundation, we are dedicated to addressing the immediate needs of care leavers—Young people suddenly confronted with an unfamiliar world as they exit their long-time residences upon turning 18. This abrupt change frequently leaves them ill-equipped for the journey ahead, jeopardizing the progress fostered by their earlier institutional care. WeLive intervenes here, by facilitating the Well-being and Work Readiness for Young People through our Bridge Programs.
At WeLive Foundation, we are dedicated to addressing the immediate needs of care leavers—Young people suddenly confronted with an unfamiliar world as they exit their long-time residences upon turning 18. This abrupt change frequently leaves them ill-equipped for the journey ahead, jeopardizing the progress fostered by their earlier institutional care. WeLive intervenes here, by facilitating the Well-being and Work Readiness for Young People through our Bridge Programs.

WeLive Foundation was established in response to the critical need to support and guide Young People leaving care institutions upon reaching adulthood. Recognizing the challenges and uncertainties they faced during this transition, WeLive foundation sought to create a supportive ecosystem that would empower these individuals to navigate the complexities of independent living.

Driven by a commitment to foster resilience, provide opportunities, and promote holistic development, WeLive Foundation was born with the mission of offering care leavers the resources, mentorship, and community they need to thrive beyond the confines of care institutions.

Our Journey

Our Board

Anant Gangola​

N S Parthsarthy​

 

Priya Varadarajan

 

Satya Srikanth

 

Vinay Ramesh

 

Prachur Goel

Our Team

 

Ramya Sundarajan
CEO

Prithvi Shukla
Program Manager
 


Nazia Tabassum
Program Coordinator

 

Sagar Boddeda

Dominic Solomon
Centre Mentor


Feba Peter
Centre Mentor

Angeline
Centre Mentor

 

Pramila Kesakar
Caretaker

Shubham
Centre Mentor


Anitha
Centre Mentor

Counsellors and facilitators

Mini Lakshmanan
Trained and Certified Career Counsellor | Mentor | Education Advocate

Jayasree Pisupati
Career Guidance Counsellor
Sejal Dewangan
Psychologist and Mental Health Counsellor

Rohan Chandak
Psychologist and Mental Health Counsellor
Prithvi Shukla

Prithvi Shukla has eight years of experience in the social sector and a Master's in Public Policy & Governance from Azim Premji University.

He has worked in education for vulnerable children and livelihood promotion to empower tribal adolescent women.

Prithvi is the Program Manager at WeLive with a deep focus on effective program implementation and positive outcomes.

Shubham

Shubham, a Bachelor of Arts in English graduate from Vinoba Bhave University (Class of 2018), hails from Jharkhand and is dedicated to working in the social sector. He has joined the WeLive Foundation as a Caretaker, where he demonstrates empathy and a strong understanding of the needs of young people. In his role, Shubham not only provides essential support but also assists young individuals in running organic stores, thereby enhancing their entrepreneurial skills. 

Anitha

Anitha, originally from Kolar, is currently a Residential Mentor at the Chennai Women's Centre and also works with youth under the transition module. With four years of experience working with youth and children, she has developed a reputation for her empathy and keen insight into their needs and behaviours. Anitha is deeply committed to supporting the growth and development of young people, ensuring they receive the guidance and support necessary for a successful transition into adulthood. She is passionate about creating a nurturing environment that fosters personal and academic growth. Her ability to connect with young individuals on a personal level and provide tailored support has made her a valuable person. She continues to support youth and mentor the youth she works with every day.

Prachur Goel is a Director at Socratus Foundation for Collective Wisdom. Earlier he has worked at Sattva, an impact consulting firm where he advised major international philanthropies on program design and strategy.

N S Parthasarthy

Partha is the Co-Founder of Mindtree Limited and served as its Vice Chairman and COO till July-2019. Partha was instrumental in designing scalable systems in Leadership Development, People processes and Technology incubation. He was passionate about creating a unique culture, which serves as a sustainable differentiator for business growth. He was at the core in designing and implementing a unique residential program for new college graduates called Mindtree Kalinga – where modern pedagogy was combined with new technologies to skill people for the future.

Partha is now a Managing Partner in Mela Ventures – a SEBI approved AIF Category II fund – which aims to create the next generation of entrepreneurs , by investing in early stage start-up in the tech space. ( www.melaventures.in )

Partha is a Director in White Swan Foundation for Mental Health – a not-for-profit organization that offers knowledge information in the area of Mental Health. White Swan Foundation provides persons with mental illness, caregivers and communities with well-researched information that helps them make informed decisions on how to deal with mental health issues. (www.whiteswanfoundation.org).

Partha holds a Masters (Honors) degree in Mathematics from BITS Pilani, and a Masters in Computer Science from IIT, Kharagpur. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

Partha is a passionate long distance runner and has participated in many half-marathons all over the world.

Nazia Tabasum

Nazia Tabasum has bagged various awards as a teacher and brings the experience of training and mentoring with her. She has worked closely with Naz Foundation in sports for development and life skill development for adolescent girls.

Angeline

Angeline has worked closely with NGOs on fundraising. Angeline has a diploma in computer applications and works as a mentor for both the young men and women in the program. 

Pramila Kesarkar

Pramila started her own school for underprivileged students in 1987 and was associated with it for 22 years. She had also started her Mahilla Samajh Seva group in 2001 to support women in distress. She plays the role of the caretaker at the women’s centre. 

Priya Varadarajan

Priya, is a part of Co-Impact, and was earlier the Lead for Gender Justice and Persons with Disabilities Clusters in Azim Premji Foundation. A Chartered Accountant, Priya is the founder of Durga, an organisation that builds gender justice in public spaces.

Rohan Chandak

Passionate about empowering individuals through compassionate and effective counselling, Rohan serves as a dedicated counsellor at WeLive Foundation. He holds a Master's degree in Psychology from Christ University and boasts extensive experience supporting young adults navigate challenges related to trauma, grief, mood disorders, and personality traits. Trained in restorative circles, Rohan facilitates these spaces to create safe havens for fostering community, meaningful connections, and personal growth.

Sejal Dewangan

Being a Psychologist and a Mental Health Counsellor, Sejal understands the importance of counselling in order to keep a check on one’s mental health as it plays a crucial role in our overall health. With BA Triple majors in Psychology, Sociology and Economics & MSc in Psychology (specialization in Clinical Psychology) both from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, she has experience in diverse fields like volunteering work, teaching in a government school, working in the corporate sector, contributing to community mental health and conducting mental health awareness programs in different setups. She has also contributed to the field of mental health by helping professionals build their new-age mental health startups.

She has been working with WeLive and counselling the Young People by supporting them in the journey they choose for themselves to navigate the world out there. At the core of her approach to counselling lies nurturance to make the Young Person feel accepted and empowered to navigate concerns of varying degrees.

Jayasree Pisupati 

A certified career counsellor from I Dream Career (IDC) residing in Bangalore , Karnataka. She holds an M. Phil Degree in Political Science from University of Hyderabad. With her degree as an asset, she worked as a junior lecturer for an academic year at St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad. Later she joined as a Research Analyst at ICFAI University, Hyderabad and provided all the necessary assistance in developing courseware in Political Science for the undergraduate and post graduate courses offered by the deemed University under its distance education mode of instruction. She was also actively involved in preparing question papers and evaluating answer scripts. As part of her job, she was also part of the team to revise and update the course content as and when the need arises. Some of the courseware that she was actively involved to name a few were: India’s Foreign Policy, Superpower Politics, Political Thought, Introduction to Politics, International Relations, etc. After relocating to Bangalore in the year 2006, she served as Social Studies teacher at Innisfree House School, JP Nagar and handled middle and higher standards. Her strengths include good verbal, interpersonal and communication skills. Also, ability to execute job demands independently and with collaboration. She can fluently speak and converse in English, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. In her free time she likes to bake, stitch, listen to Carnatic classical music and play indoor and outdoor games with her two children.

Mini Lakshmanan

Trained and Certified Career Counsellor | Mentor | Education Advocate

Mini Lakshmanan is a dedicated professional passionate about guiding individuals toward fulfilling career paths. Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering, an Executive Diploma in Management from Symbiosis Pune, and an MSc in Applied Psychology from Annamalai University, Mini blends technical expertise with a deep understanding of human behaviour and organizational dynamics.

With rich corporate experience, Mini has left a lasting impact on others' career growth, from teaching retiring Senior Engineers to embrace technology to nurturing fresh engineering graduates and enhancing their skills using Six Sigma Methodology. She has also played a crucial role in implementing Technical Competency Development initiatives and creating Career Progression Frameworks for large-scale organizations.

To understand the ground realities of Indian education, Mini embarked on a fellowship with Teach For India, serving as a teacher in a low-income school and gaining invaluable insights into educational disparities and challenges.

Alongside her commitment to We Live Foundation, Mini supports Shifting Orbits Foundation and various schools, including PSBB LLA, Air Force School, The Samhitha Academy, HAL Public School, School of India, and Holy Angels School, as well as numerous individual students and parents.

Today, Mini extends her passion for mentorship and education advocacy by volunteering with organizations like Mentor Together, Team Everest, Canasu Dream Foundation, RISE (an initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust), and United Efforts. Committed to making a positive impact, Mini dedicates herself to guiding students and professionals on their journey toward success.

Ramya Sundarajan

Ramya is the Chief Executive Officer at WeLive foundation and has been a part of the team from the program inception stage. Her association with WeLive has been extremely meaningful with her working as head of programs for 2 years before assuming her current role.

She is a certified english language trainer whos associated with the azim premji university as part-time faculty for their english language support centre. With a postgraduate degree in management, ramya is a professional storyteller who takes great joy in her interactions with children and young people. Her capacity to put in the work to make dreams a reality combined with her fierce commitment to the cause makes her a valuable resource for welive.

Prithvi Shukla

Prithvi Shukla has eight years of experience in the social sector and a Master's in Public Policy & Governance from Azim Premji University.

He has worked in education for vulnerable children and livelihood promotion to empower tribal adolescent women.

Prithvi is the Program Manager at WeLive with a deep focus on effective program implementation and positive outcomes.

Vinay Ramesh

Vinay co-founded and led Analytics Quotient (AQ), a global Analytics organization that had 700+ people across offices in 4 different countries. He later moved to Kantar and ran the Analytics business for Kantar in North America as well as running the Analytics delivery COE in Bangalore for 2 years.

Vinay’s focus now is on helping the right NGOs deliver effective social interventions at scale and leverage his experience, learnings and capital to help startups to scale profitably.

Satya Srikanth

Srikanth is a strong business professional and has been a strategic leader with 28 years of multicultural and diversified experience with hands-on experience in driving delivery excellence, workforce transformation and innovation.

Anant Gangola

Anant Gangola comes with 30 years of extensive experience spread across school education, higher education and adult literacy. 15 years of this was in Azim Premji Foundation leading field institutions in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and he was also the head of the field practice segment of Azim Premji University. Prior to this, Anant worked with the Government of Madhya Pradesh and was the key coordinator for highly impactful DPEP, SSA, TLC projects. When he started his career, Anant spent close to 3 years living, teaching and learning in a Gond tribal community in Madhya Pradesh and the association is still alive to this day. Scores of young people in the social sector have been mentored by him and he continues to guide and encourage us at WeLive Foundation.

Sagar Boddeda

Sagar Boddeda is a development professional with over 6 years of experience in working with complex social issues. With a strong academic background and proven track record, he has worked and collaborated with Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, Factree Communications, Swasti Health Catalyst, Lokniti.

Currently, Sagar collaborates with Welive Foundation and Socratus Foundation to provide monitoring & evaluation, capacity building, organization development, financial planning, and learning framework services. Sagar is also a co-founder of Ekyam, an organization that provides affordable enabling services to NGOs working with marginalized and vulnerable communities.

Domnic Solomon

Domnic Solomon is the Centre Mentor and is the closest and constant mentor for the young people in our Bridge Program. With a postgraduate degree in social work, Domnic has got valuable experience in working with youngsters from difficult circumstances. Domnic’s intense commitment to the growth of the young people in the program ensures that they have him watching out for their best interests at all times. With his willingness to extend himself, Domnic is able to create the optimum environment for the young people to learn and grow.

Feba Peter

Feba Peter is our Centre Mentor for the Young Women’s centre. She holds a Master’s degree in social work from Christ University and has worked closely with rural women entrepreneurs. At Welive, she adds value by mentoring young women who are part of the program.