Peter Winchester, founder of the charity

The Divi Seema Foundation (DSF) registered with the Charity Commission, No 1067098 (www. gov.uk/find-charities) has been operational since March 1997. It supports projects directed at improving the lives of the poorest people in Divi Seema in the Krishna delta (Krishna district) and Kottur (Srikakulam district). The choice of Kottur together with Divi Seema was due to the work of locally resident sisters, The Society of the Sisters of St Anne (Divi Seema) and the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny (Divi Seema and Kottur) . With their essential help we fund: womens’ savings groups with access to interest free loans, places in nursery schools for their children and subsidised medical help for their families; skills training programmes enabling women to be self- employed and work from home. Additionally we help to fund the innovative Children’s Parliaments an initiative taken by one of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny.

DSF funds are transferred from Barclays, Oxford, to a bank account at the Provincial headquarters of the Cluny order in Pondicherry, India, registered under the Government of India’s Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA). From here funds are transferred to three designated accounts held by the Sr Superior of each community. The Manager and the sisters regularly communicate by telephone and email and the manager makes two site visits a year. The sisters inform him as to their expenditure and request any funds they need for new projects or “topping up”. The Manager informs the trustees who decide what funds to release.

Trustees

Chairman Peter Winchester

Treasurer Peter Alcock

Secretary Nancy Winchester

Trustee John Lourie

Manager Ram Kumar Nadupalli

Our trustees are based in Oxford and Milton Keynes. The Manager is based in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.