Abraham Moses is the Head of Mindtree Foundation and drives CSR activities across the organization. He was awarded the Forbes “Good Samaritan” Philanthropy award in the year 2012, for his combined efforts in looking after administration and the personal welfare of Mindtree Minds. Moses was born in a middle class Christian family.

He comes with an experience of over 35 years in the IT industry, started off with Wipro, and then Mindtree since its inception.

In an exclusive interview, Abraham Moses shares with Marie Banu about Mindtree and its CSR Programmes.

Tell us about your family and childhood?

My father was in the army fought for the Second World War. I grew up with 7 siblings, me being the fourth. As part of army life, we were allotted a 12-bedroom bungalow in Bengaluru, we led a luxurious life. There was a setback in the family when my father met with an accident. We had to relocate to a smaller home with just one room and a kitchen. We were all packed like a matchbox literally eating just one good meal a day.

It was at this point in time we realised who true friends and relatives were. I had to discontinue my education engage in daily wage labour to support the family. I started with earning three rupees a day.

What was your inspiration to engage in charitable activities?

There are millions of angels or good Samaritans who helped me become who I am today. When I have received so much of goodwill, it is my responsibility to give back. That’s what life is all about!

There is always something ‘extra’ in our life. What we need is basic food to eat and a place to stay. Everything else is an additional blessing which we should not keep it for ourselves, but share it with others.

My mother used to ask us during dinner time to share one good deed we had done during the day. Only then, we would be served food. Many times, I used to say that I have not done anything wrong, which is in itself a good deed. She would be stern and say that it is important to make a difference in a person’s life and we should learn to identify small ways of making this possible

I am a very spiritual oriented person and all religions teach giving, loving and sharing. If you don’t try to see a God in a human being; you will not find a God either in a church or mosque or a temple. If you want to truly worship God, you should first respect a human being. The Bible says that we should love and respect others the way we would like to be loved and respected. This is what I follow.

During my early days in Wipro, I worked with great leaders like Mr. Subroto Bagchi. One day, during coffee time, we had a casual conversation about what we can do for our society. We formed a Technology for Social Action (TSA) group and volunteered in orphanages/ children’s Home on every second Saturday’s. We also took our friends and families and spent time with the inmates.

About your early days in Mindtree Foundation?

Initially, I engaged in charity work without anyone knowing about it. In 2010, when the Chairman of Mindtree Mr. Ashok Soota asked me to head Mindtree Foundation, I put my foot down and refused the offer as I never wanted to want to earn my livelihood by doing social work. However, the management convinced me to accept the position as my role would be more in identifying the right projects for intervention and addressing the gaps in the social sector. I was designated as General Manager, Good Samaritan – the first corporate employee to have such a designation though.

In 2012, I received a call from Forbes mentioning about the Good Samaritan award and that I was selected to receive the first award among ten others. Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Kiran Mazumdar were some of the other distinguished recipients.

Can you tell us about Mindtree’s rural education programme?

The world is full of needs and we can’t cater to all of them. There are a lot of gaps; CSR is all about filling this gap. Mindtree focuses primarily on rural education. We identify government schools and provide support to match it to the quality of education provided in a primary school.  We create an atmosphere for a child to love to attend school. In certain schools, there was a need for toilets which was also provided.

We designed a rewards and award system where children were provided a badge of metal stars (like that of Army officers) for their academic performance, regularity, discipline, etc. We worked in one Taluk for ten years and ensured that there were zero drop-outs. At first, we started with a primary school, and later reached to thousands of children studying in 176 schools.

We worked with SPASTIC society of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to identify children with Autism and tied up with organisations like Agastya International to provide simplified science experiments for children.

About Mindtree’s project to support medical education?

Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairman of Narayana Health approached Mindtree and expressed that there was a shortage of doctors in our country. We proposed to allocate a fund for medical education and identified about 50 children who were interested to pursue medicine while they were in class 8. Their entire education expense was sponsored by Mindtree.

Thangam, a daughter of a daily wage learner who lives in a hut in Dharmapuri district has cracked NEET examination and is now pursuing her degree in medicine. The others are studying physiotherapy or nursing or para medical courses.

How does Mindtree Foundation coordinate the programmes on ground?

Mindtree started in 1999 and much before they worked on a business plan, they focused on making a difference in the society. This was the thought process and it is in our DNA. CSR ACT was not new for us as we were already spending 2 percent of our profits for social activities. In fact, we were also part of the deliberations for CSR ACT formulation in 2013.

Our team spends 80% of their time in the field. Our partners say that we are different from other donor organisations as we don’t just give funds, but also guide them in the implementation process. Good things happen with an emotional connect. We can also make wrong decisions at times.  At times, it was getting difficult for us to identify genuine beneficiaries. 

Your thoughts about the youth of today?

I was pushed to work with young software professionals who come from different states to work in the IT sector. Most of them have never faced difficulty in their lives even though their parents would have. It is not their mistake.

It is important to cultivate the art of giving among youth. While at WIPRO, I took it as my personal mission to sensitise the youth to be good employees; only then they can make a good organisation. We created a lot of volunteering opportunities for Mindtree employees so that they can spend their weekend meaningfully. We leveraged their talents for a good cause.

If you lack personal discipline, you will not be a disciplined worker. If you don’t understand your own problems, you cannot understand the customer’s problem. It is our responsibility to shape them!