the history
In 1944, Mr & Mrs Hormusjee Vakeel's dream to provide their child Dina, who was born with down's syndrome, a place to thrive and be happy in, compelled them to start jai vakeel as no such establishment existed.
It started from their home educating and providing therapy to a few children to today, a two-acre campus in Sewri - Mumbai along with 2 rural branches in Pune and Nashik district.
in 1980, after mrs vakeel passed away dina's sister, tehmina shroff who had started coming to the institute right from when she was a little girl, took over the running of the institute. she did so selflessly and with a deep commitment that she brought to work every single day of her life till 2013.
Mrs Shroff has left behind an inspirational legacy of the children always coming first and a willingness to do what it takes for each and every child, no matter how profoundly challenged or underprivileged. Her belief "Do not look at their Disability, let's build on their Ability"; guides us in the work that we do. Members of the founding family continue to be active supporters of the foundation. In 2016, we re-branded ourselves as the Jai Vakeel Foundation & Research Centre to pay tribute to our bold and courageous founder, Mrs. Jai Hormusjee Vakeel.
After Mrs Shroff, Archana Chandra took over as CEO. She has volunteered with the organisation for over 10 years, working closely with Mrs Shroff, playing many different roles, learning on the job as to what it takes to make a difference in the lives of our students. Today Archana continues the legacy of keeping the child at the centre, committed to doing what is necessary in order for our students to lead independent and fulfilled lives. She has learnt to build on our core competency and leverage our strengths and those of our
partners, volunteers and the government to bring the best to the space that we serve. Archana takes pride in the set of passionate, driven volunteers at Jai Vakeel, who hold key positions who hold key positions including those of our top management. Their influence helps us get our work done, and be able to do so much more. She believes the true magic is when we are able to sensitise the community towards our students and integrate them into the wider community. Today, we are the largest and oldest non-profit serving the intellectually disabled.
Archana Chandra
