20th May 2020 would have been the 70th birthday of our wonderful past CEO Fred Crowe. Fred sadly passed away in 2019. He was an absolute inspiration to us all. He worked tirelessly for Nandri with an incomparable passion and dedication.
After he first became a sponsor in 2006, Fred visited Nandri. Joe, our director in India too him to Vellore to visit our mothers and their children who live in the slums. They came across a young mother with twin babies less than a year old and an older 5 year old daughter. She and her children were thin and extremely malnourished. The other mothers told Joe and Fred a heart breaking story. This young girl was alone in the world and was so desperate that she was trying to sell one of the twins as she could not feed her three children. She wanted her child to go to a family who could feed her and give her a better future. When fred heard of her desperate situation, he was moved to tears. We immediately enrolled the children in our child sponsorship programme. We started to work with the mother and gave her income support to help her get on her feet. With this lifeline from Nandri we managed to keep the family together and ensured they escaped a life of abject poverty. Nandri gave them hope and a future.whenever people would ask why he was involved in Nandri, he would tell the story of this poor mother. After his visit to India and seeing the amazing work it was doing with the extremely poor people, Fred became more and more involved in the charity.
Fred became CEO in 2014. He was the driving force and a vital part of Nandri over the last number of years, instigating many new projects including a project that Joe suggested, the hugely successful micro finance scheme for our mothers. To date we have nearly 3000 mothers who’s lives have been transformed by Micro business loans from Nandri. Also now our children are being given the opportunity to escape from poverty by staying in education. Many continue to third level colleges and have successful careers. Other projects include proper sanitation and organic farming. For now during COVID19 lockdown, our main aim is feeding our families and expanding our reach to the broader community in Tamil Nadu.
Fred had such a love and affection for the Nandri Family. His laughter and sense of fun was infectious. How the people of Nandri adored him! He may not have spoken their language but his warmth and his love for them did not need words. I admired his amazing achievements for the charity one day and his response was “I have got more out of my involvement with Nandri than I ever gave. I just love the Indian people.” Fred was happiest surrounded by the children and their mothers. He loved to play with the little ones. Joe remembers that he would lose himself in their company and behave just like a child himself! He would be surrounded by giggling children and laughing mothers. They all just loved being close to him.
Fred knew his time was limited and one of his main aims was to ensure that Nandri would continue its wonderful mission to help mothers and their families to escape poverty. Because of Fred’s legacy and hard work, today Nandri continues to thrive and expand its out reach to those in need. I know Fred would be very proud of the work that Nandri is doing with its families and the community during this terrible pandemic.
Happy heavenly 70th birthday Fred.
We love and miss you,
from all your Nandri family
