Dakor, Gujarat · Karad, Maharashtra
For more than 250 years our family has served the communities that raised it. We trace our roots back to Gopalrao Jaggannath Tambwekar, gifted by the then Peshwa and Gaekwad Family, villages of Dakor and Kanjari. Gopalrao built the Ranchodraiji Temple in Dakor and our family has since been entrusted to serve visiting Vaishavites. The Tambwekar Foundation builds on that legacy today through wellness, education and heritage, rooted in the places we come from and run by the people who live there.
About the Foundation
Inspired by a legacy of philanthropic initiatives, The Tambwekar Foundation leverages the passion and competencies of our family members and collaborators to uplift the human experience in our ancestral communities of Dakor in Gujarat and Karad in Maharashtra.
We aspire to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors and strengthen our family's spirit of generosity and good will. Our projects focus on preserving the identity of the local community. The Tambwekar Foundation is a privately held fund.
We believe that instilling a sense of identity for future generations of rural communities serves as a force of development.
Our mission
Care is delivered by resident volunteers, visiting practitioners and teachers who give their time freely.
Our Pillars
Our service is provided through wellness, education and heritage. Each pillar is delivered with local partners so the work continues whether or not we are in the room.
Through good health, people can have a joyful life experience where they live. We leverage holistic wellness practices alongside modern medicine: homeopathy, integrated camps, eye care and surgery, all free at the point of use.
We forge a bright future by investing in the next generation of students and instructors, and by leveraging technology to widen the world a child can see from a small town.
Places of gathering hold a community together. We restore temples, schools and the land around them so that the identity of a place survives for the generation that inherits it.
Our Work
Some of these have run for decades; some began this year. All of them were built with residents, practitioners and teachers from Dakor, Karad and the villages around them.
Wellness · since 14 April 2017
Every two weeks, integrated wellness services come to Dakor. Dr. Amita Mehta dedicates her time bimonthly, while Dr. Vaidehi Joshi travels from Dahisar to share her homeopathic expertise, sourcing medicines locally. Our volunteer team manages medicine distribution, camp activities and recordkeeping, with COO Rakesh Patel overseeing operations. After each camp, the team shares a post-camp feast, while Lakman bhai and his team maintain the grounds and the ecosystem around them.
Wellness · 2017–2019
With support from Nadiad Sankara Vision on Wheels and A Chasma Ghar, our volunteers helped over 365 people annually with eye exams and free glasses. Sankara Hospital also offered complimentary surgeries, including transportation and an overnight stay for recovery.
“You are doing a noble deed. Before, men in my village would smoke beedees together, but now I read the daily newspaper thanks to the eyeglasses.”
A patron of the Vision on Wheels camp
For many years we have supplied essential provisions to single mothers, widows and women supporting themselves and their dependent families. To make sure provisions reach those who need them, we verify need and then serve families directly or donate grain, sugar, oil and other necessities in quantity.
Ajay Tambwekar, his late sister Asha Saraph and their father Bhalchandra Gopalrao Tambwekar are all graduates of Sansthan High School; father and son have both served as Board Chairperson. Today Ajay and Ujwala are closely involved in restoring the building so students have safe, soundly constructed facilities.
Working with Sansthan High School, we funded computers, engaged local technology professionals and arranged Bal Mandir as the venue: a classroom with desks, chairs and an internet connection, where children learn to use a computer through games. Parent and teacher touch points keep families informed and surface the obstacles that keep children away.
With the principals of Sansthan High School and Bal Mandir, we set up conversational English classes for elementary school children. Ujwala trained women from the community who had basic knowledge and the desire to teach; they prepare and deliver the afternoon lessons themselves.
Vishwanath Gopalrao Tambwekar's vision was to restore the Vishnu Lakshmi Temple near Karad. Ajay and Ujwala, the Tambwekars of Karad (Suhas, Seema, Kumar, Kalyani, Nitin, Juhily and Sachin), with Madhavi Raje of Shrirampur and Chitra Kulkarni of Mumbai, made it real. Restoration began in 2000 and opened in 2002; the Malkhed community has gathered there every year since, in typical Karadi style.
Bhajnibai lived at and cared for the Vishnu temple on the banks of the Gomti; Ajay's grandfather provided funds so her devotional services were never interrupted. Her son Vasant has inherited that responsibility. Ajay and Ujwala funded and oversaw the renovation that made the temple habitable again for the next generation.
Heritage · ongoing
Trees nurtured in a supporter's garden in Vadodara, raised on vermicompost, were moved to the farm: rain trees, kadamb, mango, karanj, Indian coral and swamp rose mallow. A small step with meaningful impact on local biodiversity, and a way of caring for the ground a community stands on.
They continue to serve with attention, compassion and understanding, delivering remedies from professionals for those who may otherwise face barriers to care. Here's to unsung, selfless heroes exemplifying true philanthropy through a meaningful spend of time, talent and treasure.
The Tambwekar Foundation, on returning to Sarkari Bagh
Get Involved
It is executed by a dedicated team of residents, practitioners, teachers and like-minded partners who are ready to give and to serve. If that sounds like you, we would like to hear from you.
Doctors, homeopaths, optometrists and allied health professionals who can give a day at a camp, or a consultation from afar.
Anyone able to teach conversational English, basic computing, or train the local women who lead our classroom sessions.
Schools, hospitals, trusts and businesses near Dakor and Karad who want to sustain this service alongside us.
Relatives, alumni of Sansthan High School and friends of the family who want to keep a 250-year tradition going.
Contact
We keep everything in one place: send us a message on LinkedIn, or follow the page to see what the volunteers are doing each fortnight.
We are a small, volunteer-run foundation, so please allow us a little time to reply.
