Rajaram Sridhar, Wheelchair-bound social worker, astrologer and founder-trustee of Maithri Educational and Charitable Trust, Chennai, India

I hold the words of Theodore Roosevelt close to my heart: "Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance."

One of the children we sponsor, Bhanumathy, who is 19, passed Class XII in 2003 and today has a respectable job in a private firm. For her mother, this is a dream come true.

Madras Plus : Saturday 24 September 2005
An Indomitable Sprit : Mission Possible by Rinku Gupta

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! For polio-affected R Sreedhar, who can just about crawl.... Instead of searching a shoulder to cry on, Sreedhar lends his own to more than 120 disabled. Winner of Tamilnadu Government's Best Social Worker for 2005, Shreedhar Pillai is a man truly able .. "What was denied to me, I want to give to others" is his dream.

Forty years ago, a cruel attack of polio reduced his movement to mere crawling on all his fours. His father spent a whopping Rs one lakh for medical treatment. His handicap did not allow R. Sreedhar to get any formal education ... He dropped out of class VIII "because I required a special table and chair which could not be arranged for me".

He set up Maithri Educational and Charitable Trust in 1983, but was functional without formal identity with contribution from friends ... till it was formally registered in 1991.