The Prashant H. Fadia Foundation recently donated two paintings of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the Akshaya Patra Foundation, an organization with the vision that no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger. The sale of both paintings will go towards funding the program which simultaneously addresses the twin challenges facing India today, hunger and access to education.  

The paintings are 40 by 48 inches and the medium is oil on canvas. Appropriately named “Mother,” they were crafted by renowned Indian artist Praskash Sonawane. Sonawane is a lecturer at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, and the winner of many honors and awards.

“Mother Teresa is an inspiration to many, as she dedicated her life to the poor, sick, orphaned and dying,” said Saluni Fadia, President and CEO of Abacus Software Group and Director of the Prashant H. Fadia Foundation. “Akshaya Patra is an organization that shares Mother Teresa’s commitment and compassion for a better world. The profits of these paintings will go to a great cause, one that would have certainly been in line with Mother Teresa’s vision.”

Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal program.  A public-private partnership, Akshaya Patra is a secular program that combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. It costs $28 to feed a child daily for the entire school year. With an average government subsidy of 50 percent, $28 can feed two children. For many of the children this is their only complete meal for the day. This gives them an incentive to come to school, stay in school and provides them with the necessary nutrients they need to develop their cognitive abilities to focus on learning. Now that Akshaya Patra has reached its goal of feeding one million children each school day, Akshaya Patra’s next milestone is to serve 5 million children daily by 2020.

Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 at the age of 87. A Roman Catholic nun, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 and the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. The Missionaries of Charity continue to work operating soup kitchens, children and family programs, orphanages and schools and homes and hospices for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. Following her death, she was beautified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

“I believe there is a source of inspiration behind every art, and that’s exactly the way I like to paint, whether its nature or a personality,” said Sonawane. “Mother Teresa is an endless source of inspiration for me, a goddess of compassion that needs no introduction.”

For more information about purchasing the paintings, or for the artist’s full biography, please email tapf.info@akshayapatrausa.org or call (781) 438-3090.  Akshaya Patra can be found on the web at www.foodforeducation.org.

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