Tripura Foundation Incorporated

Phonemic Intelligence addresses the negative side effects of poverty and other socio-economic factors at their root – the brain. Phonemic Intelligence is intelligence-enhancing education. By strengthening the brain, children are better equipped to take charge, realize far more of their potential, be more willing to help and show compassion to others, and thus rise above poverty, paving a way for a brighter future not only for children today, but for future generations as well.

What Is PI? Phonemic Intelligence (PI) is formed of two words: phoneme and intelligence. “Phoneme" can be defined as the smallest unit in a language that is capable of onveying a change in meaning, as the "m" of "mat" and "b" of "bat” (see Free English Dictionary). In general, phonemes are vowels and consonants with specific meaning and pronunciation. Intelligence means broadly- "understanding", "knowledge", "learning", “knowing” or “ meaning”. Phonemic Intelligence thus means (experiencing) distinct sounds and the intelligence embedded in those sounds- such an experience is critical because of the sounds' ability to awaken the dormant areas of the brain. The phonemes (sounds) used in PI are applicable for all age groups and have been selected for improving both academic performance, as well as personal and social behavior.

Elderly people all over India are often abandoned by relatives who cannot afford to provide for even their most basic needs. Due to scanty government pensions, most subsist on only on one meal per day, with no one to help them obtain water to drink from village wells or to assist them in attending to their bodily functions. Living in huts that barely shelter, or having no shelter at all, they exist unloved and unseen. Many of these discarded elders would likely die lonely tragic deaths if it wasn't for our children. HoPE Learning Center Children come from the poorest of poor families in rural India. Our daily snacks often provide more nutrition than the watery rice that many subsist on most of the time. Their outlooks could be grim, and rightly so, but this is not the case. They are bright and eager HoPE Heroes. Their hearts and mind are fueled on Compassion. Instead of sinking into moods of self pity common to preteens, they chose to share HoPE with others - namely the poorest of poor elderly people in their villages. When a group of children spoke to our coordinators about this problem, we promoted efforts so that they and other children at 85 HoPE Learning Centers could deliver meals and clothing to poor elderly people on the holiday of Diwali in October, 2013. Since then, we have encouraged generous individual donors to sponsor the needs of 65 of our neediest elderly villagers. For only $30 per month, the quality of life goes way up for an elderly person and a life is possibly saved. Yet, many others have been identified who need food, clothing, medications and someone to occasionally look in on them to make sure that they are alright.

The Need: Hunger remains the Number One cause of death in the world. There are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world. One third of the world’s hungry live in India. 10 million people die every year of chronic hunger and hunger-related diseases. Over 7,000 Indians die of hunger every day. 51 million Americans live in food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children. To put it another way, one in four children in the USA is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live healthy lives.
Our Work: Tripura Foundation began with the mission of feeding the poor. Our founder, Dr. Baskaran Pillai believes that the greatest thing each of us can do is to serve a meal to someone who is hungry. He founded Tripura Foundation U.S.A. in 1989. In 1999, dedicated volunteers prepared and delivered hot meals to dwellers in the slums of Chennai, India, and since then we have been feeding the underprivileged and destitute all over India.
In July, 2013, Tripura Foundation committed further to its roots by launching its most ambitious project to date - to feed a million meals to the poorest of the poor in one year. Well, we've long since met our goal! To date, we've served over Five Million meals in 11 nations! Currently, we focus our efforts mainly in India and the USA.