Anupama V. Nadella, wife of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, donated ₹2 crore to Anantapur-based Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre on Sunday.
The NGO has been promoting alternative and additional means of livelihood for women for the past several years. The women who the NGO works with are mostly from families of rainfed farmers and farm labourers.
Ms. Nadella chose 3,000 women from eight mandals in the district to be benefited by the grant.
Ms. Nadella designed the project in association with her father K.R. Venugopal, a retired IAS officer who served as secretary to the Prime Minister. She drew inspiration for the project from her father-in-law Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandhar, who was also an IAS officer and a batchmate of Mr. Venugopal.
The project was launched online in the presence of Collector Gandham Chandrudu.
Mr. Venugopal, interacting with the women beneficiaries online, hoped that this activity would be kept apolitical as corruption in the name of operating Self-Help Groups for the past 50 years had destroyed the institution structure. He hoped that migration from the arid regions would be stopped with this help getting added to the support being provided by AF Ecology Centre run by the Rural Development Trust.
