Chairman's Message
My second daughter Muna who was born and educated in Melbourne always had a passion and vision to give and share with others who are less fortunate than us. She passed away at the age of 25, and we as parents wanted to continue to work on her vision of sharing by establishing first Muna Australian Matriculation School in my native place Parangipettai India, which is still in the educationally backward area. This school now has 1200 students from kindergarten to year 12th standard.
This was followed by establishment of Muna College of Education offering B Ed degree and has so far trained 500 students mostly girls especially from most disadvantaged sections of community.
Muna Foundation was set up to sponsor poor students to complete tertiary courses which offer qualifications with immediate prospects of employment such as BSc Nursing, B Engineering, Hotel Management , Diploma courses etc opening jobs in fast expanding manufacturing sectors. As in Oz, the list of courses is periodically reviewed to meet the needs of the Indian and overseas markets.
As the town of 200,000 people have significant percentage of elderly living in poverty, and rampant child labour practices in a colony called Dili Saheb Durga, we adopted this place and built on and improved 15 houses 10 years ago, and offered free education to the kids. More recently last year Trust built a dedicated school Muna Madras and School with women meeting area. It has now celebrated its first anniversary with little kids participating and receiving awards in primary class competitions.
Along with education, Health is another element to the wellbeing of the community and on this we have joined up with Mahathma Ghandhi Postgraduate Medical Institute Pondicherry to establish a rural Muna Hospital which works with a nurse on call available 24 hours, and lady doctor in attendance during the day, with regular Specialist Consultant visits. Efforts are being made to increase other related services. Besides, a moderate pension scheme to the elderly and sick was devised and this is distributing monthly pensions directly and through online payments for the last 10 years.
As the main funds for all these originated from my earnings in Australia, I have established an Endowment at Victoria University Melbourne 7 years ago offering Muna Nursing Scholarship to Aussie battlers.
In order to continue with Muna's legacy in Education, Health and Poverty alleviation albeit in a small way, financial planning to secure ongoing cashflow funding from assets we have, proper structures are being reviewed.
We thank all our children in supporting our social services health and educational activities.
Dr Abdul Rahman MBBS.,FRCS., FRACS
Consultant Surgeon
Melbourne, Australia
PO BOX 6487, Point Cook 3030
Melbourne, Australia.
Australia: +61402055031 | Malaysia: +60143004296 | India: +919994092905
