About the trust

Pass It On is a public charitable trust, registered in Bengaluru on 29 May 2003. It was founded by Mrs. Ashoka Kumari Pushpakaran and her late husband, Mr. Pushpakaran, with one purpose: to make education and care available to the children and women who need it most.

How it began

The trust grew out of a simple act of compassion. Mrs. Pushpakaran began tutoring underprivileged children in her own home in Thanisandra, Bengaluru — a few children at a time, in the space she had.

As the need grew, she and her husband formalised the work as a trust. They built it on a belief that gave the trust its name: every child who receives help should be able to pass it on to others.

Our aims and objectives

The trust was established with two formal objects:

1. To establish, run, support and grant aid to schools, colleges, libraries and reading rooms — for the benefit of students and staff, and for the advancement of education and knowledge in the wider community.
2. To establish and maintain counselling centres and emergency homes for runaway children, street children, destitute women and children, and women and children in exploitative situations — and to provide them with relief, help and counselling.

Our founder

Mrs. Ashoka Kumari Pushpakaran leads the trust with a vision of quality education and care for the underprivileged.

In 2008, after the passing of her husband, she was caring for, feeding, tutoring and sheltering thirteen children in her own home — while raising her two young children. She kept going on faith and determination. The success of the children in her care is what encouraged her to dream bigger.

Mrs. Pushpakaran has received multiple awards for her work in empowering women and children. Her dedication continues to inspire and transform lives in the community, and she hopes to extend the trust's work to more branches in the years ahead.

Our flagship initiative: Bishop Sargent High School

Bishop Sargent High School, in Kothanur, Bengaluru, is run by Pass It On Trust and is the fullest expression of its mission. The trust contributed to constructing the building, and the school operates from a 13,000 sq. ft. campus.

400+ students study here. Many come from families below the poverty line — among them the children of auto drivers and domestic workers, as well as orphans, semi-orphans and destitute children, alongside children from middle-class families.

Under the trust's guidance, the school has graduated eleven batches with commendable results, and has received a number of recognitions — including the Golden School Award 2019.

Beyond the school, the trust runs sponsorship programmes that carry the fees and materials for individual students, so that a family's circumstances do not end a child's education. You can see all of the trust's work across education, relief, community welfare, the environment and animal welfare.

Mission

Holistic transformation of those who live in extreme poverty or hunger.

Vision

To create an equal, just and sustainable society; to empower the poor to demand their rights; and to engage citizens to become active and supportive.

What we stand for

The trust stands for action, service and hope for the poor — rendering service to the underprivileged and downtrodden, and reaching out to marginal children who are orphaned, abandoned, impoverished or extremely needy, to develop them as mature citizens.

Its focus is the rehabilitation of the weaker sections of society, through advocacy, direct interaction, preventive measures and creating awareness. To date the trust has reached around 1,654 marginalised children, helping them and their families through its relief and development wing.