On the 30th of January 2002, Stray Relief and Animal Welfare (STRAW), was registered as a trust by its founding trustees, Vasanthi and Dinesh Kumar.

As husband and wife, they have always worked together on a number of projects, both personal and professional. Besides these projects, Vasanthi and Dinesh associated themselves with a number of charitable organizations like the Missionaries of Charity, CRY, Blind Associations and orphanages. As life runs along, the natural consequential step was to consolidate various small activities that were taken up now and then. The thought of setting up an organization to take up a social cause loomed in the horizon. Street children, distressed and anguished women, the blind or the voiceless animals, as a cause, vied with one another. Finally, the poor helpless animals took away their hearts. And STRAW – a trust that takes up animal welfare activities was set up.

Vasanthi Kumar 

Vasanthi who is the co-founder and Managing Trustee, has a master’s degree in Economics from the Bangalore University with a management degree from the International Management institute (IMI) New Delhi. With nearly twenty years of experience in senior positions in various private organizations, she currently has STRAW close to her heart. 

Dinesh Kumar 

As its co-founder, Dinesh gives strategic inputs to various programs that STRAW undertakes from time to time. He is an engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Delhi with a management qualification from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) – Bangalore. With about twenty years of experience in strategic marketing and consulting, he at present runs his own software company.