THE TOBACCOWALA FOUNDATION

The Tobaccowala Foundation was launched in 2010 by the Late Akhtarali H. Tobaccowala and his family to help underwrite the health, education and welfare of the needy in India. Since its inception, the Foundation has helped over 12,000 individuals in a range of ways from underwriting eye surgery, helping cancer and diabetes patients , providing vocational training skills to electricians, plumbers and farmers, as well as providing education for poor as well as handicapped children. The To... baccowala Foundation is a secular organization which follows a three pronged strategy to maximize the impact of our giving and minimize our operating costs. The Foundation focuses in three broad areas of Health, Education and Welfare and we limit our giving primarily in the 150 mile area around Mumbai, India where the Foundation is based. This allows us to visit , participate and monitor our giving. The Foundation believes that we should provide resources to already existing and ongoing health, education and welfare projects, rather than starting our own. Some of the most impactful projects in India do not have sufficient funds to ensure that their good works can multiply and that they can always be made available to the individuals they help. By directing funds to these ongoing efforts, we are able to minimize operational costs and ensure that 95% of our revenue is delivered to those who are in need. The Foundation places a priority on two types of projects. Their first area of interest are projects that can positively impact a person for an entire lifetime. Therefore we emphasize education and vocational training, or underwriting health initiatives that can turn a life around within hours, such as eye or cataract surgery that gives back vision to those who have lost it. Their second area is to help fund organizations that take care of those who are on the very margin of society. These include handicapped, the autistic, elderly individuals who have served society but have no place to stay and young children/orphans who have been cast out into the world.More