Foundation
“Be educated, be agitated, be organized, be confident, never give up, these are the five principles of our life”
- Dr B R Ambedkar
Devasigamani was born into a small agricultural family in Reddiarpatti, a hamlet situated near Surandai in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. Since education was the only way out from the hardships of village life, he pursued his early education at Ittamozhi and later studied at Bishop Sargent Teachers Training School in Palayamkottai. He initially taught at Barron Brook High School in Surandai and later moved to Palayamkottai to teach at Bishop Sargent School. He later taught at Schaffter Higher Secondary School, Tirunelveli for more than three decades. He served as an 8th grade English medium classroom teacher and as the senior master of the western branch of the same school before his retirement. His passion for teaching knew no bounds and he retained his thirst for knowledge all through his life.
Grace Devasigamani followed the footsteps of her parents in Palayamkottai and took up teaching as her career. Her early schooling was at Sarah Tucker High School in Palayamkottai and she completed her teacher training program at Holy Cross College of Education, Trichy. She moved back to Palayamkottai and started teaching at Municipal Schools. She served at Vannarpettai Municipal School as a classroom teacher only to become a headmistress of a newly started Kokkirakulam Municipal School. As a successful leader she made the school become larger with the support of the locals and the Municipal Commissioners. She took the students on educational trips all over Tamil Nadu and built both a laboratory and library for the school. She served as a headmistress for more than two decades at this school and left a legacy as the most popular headmistress.
Grace Devasigamani Educational Foundation was instituted in the memory of Devasigamani and Grace Devasigamani, two Palayamkottai-based teachers who dedicated their lives to the betterment of the students of Tirunelveli. The foundation is committed to the educational wellbeing of the highly deserving students from Tirunelveli who may be struggling financially to fund their education. The Foundation supports eligible students at the middle, high school, and college levels with a one-time stipend or an equally divided monthly school fee stipend for one or multiple school years. The grant amount will be decided by the foundation as per the individual needs of the students and will be paid directly to the institution. The foundation does not pay for private school or private college education. The foundation will also have dispensation for students who require schoolbooks, college books, and stationery all through the school year. The foundation will not, at any point, pay the stipend or the grant money directly into the hands of the student or their family.
