about us

The Prajna Counselling Centre is a registered non-profit, secular service organization for social and educational development. Our organization was established in the year 1987, based in Mangalore, in the south-Indian state Karnataka. It is registered under the Public Charitable Trust Act.

The centre managed and headed by a group of professionally trained and experienced women, felt the need for a service-oriented agency to empower marginalized communities and provide individual and qualitative help for exploited women and children. The Prajna Counselling Centre was started by Prof. Hilda Rayappan, a self-reliant and well-educated woman, who comes from a marginal family and empowered herself to reach her aim with confidence and heartiness. As founder trustee, she started the project with the help of Ms. Celine Pereira and Prof. Phyllis D’Costa.

In the year 2005, the trustee group was strengthened by the memberships of three more trustees: Ms. Sheila Rosario, a chartered accountant by profession and the proprietor of Jimmy’s Super Market, Ms. Shalini Aiyappa, Head of Psychology Dept, St Aloysius College, Mangalore and Ms. Jacintha D’Almeida, worked in senior positions in the software company Infosys. Later, two more members joined the team: Lena Noronha, working in an administrative field of an organization in Kuwait and Beatrice Pereira, who was also a trustee of Aubrey D’Souza.

The seven were proud to celebrate the silver jubilee of Prajna in the year 2012. The employees, patients, sponsors and friends of the Centre celebrated the establishment and achievements of the NGO on the 17th of April 2012 in Milagres Hall, Mangalore.

Currently, the Board of Trustees at Prajna has Prof. Hilda Rayappan, Founder-Director, Prajna, Ms. Maria Phyllis D'Costa, Retd. Professor of English, Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore, Dr. Shalini Aiyappa, HOD Psychology at St. Aloysius College Mangalore, and Ms. Amita Rao, MBA in Human Resources.

Our Objectives

  • The protection of women and children’s rights and the sensitization of the society
  • The improvement of education for school age children in a child friendly learning atmosphere
  • The emancipation of women and children and the self-empowerment to stand up for their rights
  • The providing of counseling, treatment and rehabilitation service for chronic alcoholics and drug addicts and the supportive service for the concerned families
  • The offering of legal and referral services for individuals and families, in particular women, who are suffering from atrocities and injustice
  • The providing of public education for social awareness and prevention of drug addiction
  • The participation of women in social, economic and political affairs
  • The improvement of health and providing of medical care
  • The economic empowerment for families and communities
  • The training for human resource development and improvement of professional skills
  • The providing of family education programmes on child development, adolescent conflicts, and problems of teenagers, marriage, parenting, childcare and old age adjustments
  • The development of a national and international network system with similar agencies

 

Our Aims

The goal of our organization is to provide counselling and supportive services for individuals and families suffering from emotional, mental and economic challenges. The centre provides community-based and action oriented programmes and activities for the welfare and the empowerment of needy, poor, socially deprived and discriminated humans, irrespective of caste, creed, sex and status.

The area of focus includes women and children in distress, destitute and abandoned children, child labors, street children, alcoholics and drug addicts, mentally and physically challenged women, HIV/AIDS infected and affected, slum dwellers and people living in low income community areas.