Karuna Trust
Instituted in 1986, Karuna Trust is a public charitable trust as a response to the high prevalence of Leprosy in Yelandur Taluk, Chamrajnagar District,Karnataka. Over the years, the Trust has expanded its scope of work to Comprehensive Health Care and advocacy areas. Karuna Trust believes in providing need based, people oriented and culturally acceptable methods using appropriate technology with minimum cost to the community. Reaching the unreached is the Karuna Trust's mission. They reach out to those who are in the remote and inaccessible areas, hilly and tribal regions, Naxalite and insurgency areas with poor roads with no connectivity.
Participant Profile: Venkat Narayana Chekuri (Joint Secretary)
Prior to Karuna Trust, Venkat joined Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari as a full time worker. After initial training, he went to Arunachal Pradesh to be part of the Integrated Tribal Development programme. He worked as the Secretary of the project at the time of leaving the organization in the year 1998. He then joined Dr. Sudarshan in Tribal and Rural Development organisations namely Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) and Karuna Trust. Venkat has worked in different capacities in both organizations and became the Trustee of Karuna Trust in the year 2002. He has been Joint Secretary since 2010.