A Humane Initiative To Empower The Disabled

Our primary aim is to enable the disabled; we stand for the disabled community, says Mary Anitha, the founder of CEFEE

- Arya Aravind

Till then Dr. P A Mary Anitha was just like any other woman who was empathetic towards the downtrodden and the needy but never had any special plans to help change the lives of people around her. As part of her journalism internship, she had to work with differently-abled children at Sai Seva Sangh in Hyderabad, which changed her life, and thereby the lives of many such kids also.

“The institution I served was a high-end one but even in the midst of all the luxuries, the children there wanted love, care and attention. This made me think about having one such institution for the needy in our State,” Anitha revealed the story behind the inception of Centre for Empowerment and Enrichment (CEFEE) [www.cefee.org].

Having a doctorate in Ayurveda Tourism Management, she also holds an MBA and MPhil in Entrepreneurship. She is currently pursuing PG in Clinical Psychology.

She has been working with Vrindavan Group of Companies as Project Manager from 2007 onwards and also as a faculty member of the Student Police Cadets project. After getting married to Adv. Sabu Thozhuppadan she moved to Maldives as a teacher. On her return from Maldives after some time, Anitha started visiting schools, where she used to spend time with kids trying to understand their problems. She launched CEFEE on November 14, 2011.

CEFEE is a non-governmental organisation that aims to help bring about transformation in our society. It is a platform that empowers each of us to take the lead and initiate a positive change by creating sustainable communities. “Our primary aim is to enable the disabled; we stand for the disabled community,” says Anitha. CEFEE currently has four projects – ‘Uniquely Me’, ‘Jyothi’, ‘Break the Silence’ and ‘Love, Care, Respect’.