Aarthi Veerupillai | Giving Back

For Aarthi Veerupillai, the founder of the Olimalar Foundation in Kochi, the path to creating an organisation that now touches hundreds of lives was shaped by loss, resilience, unexpected detours, and a deep desire to help others.

Aarthi works with children, parents, and teachers to build emotional well-being and life skills. But her story began far from Kerala, in a family displaced by conflict. Born to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, Aarthi's family was forced to leave Sri Lanka during the civil war. They settled in Chennai when she was very young. 

Despite the difficult circumstances surrounding her family's migration, Aarthi remembers a happy childhood. While her father worked in London, she lived in Chennai with her mother in a lively residential colony.

"I was an extrovert," she recalls. "I spent more time with the older neighbours than children my age." Many of those childhood friendships continue even today.

Her dreams back then were refreshingly simple. She didn't dream of becoming a doctor, a scientist, or a social entrepreneur. She just wanted to grow up big enough to have an entire seat to herself in an auto rickshaw instead of sitting on someone's lap.

Life, however, had other plans. When Aarthi was about 12 years old, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. The family moved to London so she could receive treatment. The move changed everything. London was cold, unfamiliar, and lonely. The outgoing girl from Chennai suddenly found herself struggling to fit in. She had no friends and faced a language barrier. The confidence that once came naturally slowly disappeared. Then came the greatest loss of her life. In 1999, Aarthi's mother passed away. 

Her mother's death left a void that could never truly be filled. More than a parent, she had been the emotional bridge between Aarthi and her father. Without her, the family struggled to communicate. Conversations became limited, and emotions remained largely unspoken.

The years that followed were challenging. Aarthi enrolled in a Medical Biochemistry degree. During her third year, another crisis hit. Her father's business suffered significant losses, forcing the family to sell their home. The house was more than just a building. It held memories of her mother in every corner. Watching it being sold was emotionally devastating. Yet adversity was quietly shaping Aarthi's resilience.

Inspired by her mother's generous spirit, she had already begun participating in charitable activities. As a child, she raised funds for leprosy projects in India. In London, she continued supporting fundraising campaigns whenever she could.

After graduating, she entered cancer research, hoping to contribute to the search for better treatments. But she soon discovered a different challenge. Many people could not understand the complex information surrounding medical research and clinical trials. The problem wasn't always the science. It was communication.

Determined to bridge that gap, Aarthi moved into healthcare marketing and public relations. She attended evening classes and earned additional qualifications while working. Her role involved translating complicated medical language into simple, accessible information for ordinary people. At a later point in her career,  she would do just the reverse, transforming everyday language into professional communication for healthcare experts.

The experience taught her a valuable lesson: knowledge only creates change when people can understand it. This insight would later become one of the foundations of her work with children. Around the same period, Aarthi completed a Master's degree in Oncology. Her career was progressing well, but she continued searching for something more meaningful. The turning point arrived unexpectedly.

While working in medical PR, she travelled to Uganda as part of a volunteer initiative. There, she taught storytelling to large groups of children. For the first time, she experienced the joy of working directly with young people. She loved the energy, the creativity, and the connection she felt with the children. Still, she wasn't ready to make it her life's work.

Back in London, challenges continued. Home life remained difficult. That was when a friend suggested they travel together. The plan seemed simple enough: volunteer for a while in India, then continue to Thailand and back to London.  But destiny was waiting in Kerala.

When Aarthi arrived in Fort Kochi, something clicked almost instantly. "It felt like home," she would later say.

She spent two weeks teaching life skills and immersing herself in the local culture. What began as a short volunteer assignment soon evolved into something much bigger. She was offered a role in a women's empowerment programme and found herself increasingly drawn to community-based work. After briefly returning to London to stabilise her finances, she made a bold decision that many questioned. She bought a one-way ticket back to Kerala. It was a huge leap of faith.

The Birth of Olimalar

In Kerala, she met George, whose kindness and ability to connect with people deeply impressed her. Together, they worked in education and youth development. Aarthi began imagining a different model, one that focused on consistency, emotional well-being, and sustainable community engagement. Before launching her own initiative, she spent time learning. She joined a startup accelerator programme, studied how organisations are built, and trained for two years as a mental health educator.

Then came another unexpected obstacle. On February 18, 2020, she officially resigned from her job to pursue her vision. Just weeks later, the world shut down because of COVID-19. Unable to return immediately to India, Aarthi adapted her plans. 

She launched an online platform called "LifSkool" during lockdown. The name was intentionally misspelt because she wanted young people to know that making mistakes was perfectly okay. Through online videos and virtual sessions, she introduced topics like writing gratitude letters, meditation exercises, games that helped family members bond with each other, emotional awareness, and simple breathing exercises.

Together with George, she organised an online circus fundraiser with Performers Without Borders. The initiative raised money for books, educational materials, and mobile phones for students who lacked resources. What started with around 20 students quickly grew into a community of 200 over the course of many years. Parents began reporting noticeable changes in their children. They were becoming more confident, expressive, and emotionally aware.

Encouraged by the response, Aarthi developed a structured life-skills curriculum designed to support children over a ten-week learning journey. George helped adapt the material to fit Kerala's cultural context. As restrictions eased, the programme gradually moved offline. Determined to strengthen her credentials and address critics who questioned her expertise, Aarthi completed the highly respected Teach First teacher training programme in the UK.

Finally, on October 3, 2024, the Olimalar Foundation was officially registered. Today, the organisation is led by a small but dedicated team consisting of Aarthi, George, and Anu, a local primary school teacher.

The foundation focuses on children who need additional support rather than only high-achieving students. Through programmes like Life Connect, it also engages parents and communities, recognising that children's well-being depends on the ecosystem around them. The organisation collaborates with artists, educators, and schools to make social-emotional learning more creative and accessible.

Despite reaching over 3,000 people through more than 100 sessions, Aarthi remains grounded. Her vision is not about rapid expansion or impressive numbers. It is about meaningful impact, sustainable growth, and helping children develop the life skills needed to navigate life.

For Aarthi, the biggest milestone was deeply personal. Her father, once worried about her unconventional career choices, recently looked at everything she had built and said he could hardly believe it all started from her bedroom. “It meant everything to me,” she says.

In many ways, Olimalar reflects Aarthi's own journey. A child displaced by conflict. A teenager shaped by grief. A scientist who became a communicator. A volunteer who found a home in Kerala. And a woman who transformed personal loss into a mission that now helps others find confidence, connection, and hope. And for Aarthi, the journey has only begun.