Rangammal Memorial Rehabilitation Society
Our Founder
Madam Sylvia Wright was born in West Yorkshire in 1938. She was educated at Lawnswood High School in Leeds and trained as a nurse at Leeds General Infirmary, becoming a Sister Tutor in General and District Nursing. After a spell as a Senior Nursing Officer looking after Community Health in the inner city of Leeds, she became a Senior Lecturer in Nursing at Leeds Polytechnic (now the Metropolitan University).
In 1982, Madam Sylvia felt a calling to serve the poor in India. She took a bold step to sell her house, car, and cash in her NHS pension and set off alone with all her savings to make a difference.
She decided to settle in the town of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu which is situated in the Southern part of India. She started off by opening a mobile clinic that treated over 400 patients a day. This clinic served the remote villages of South India. Three years later she acquired her first small hospital which treated patients with illnesses and endemic diseases that had previously been left untreated due to a lack of doctors, hospitals, clinics, and medicines.
Madam Sylvia was supported by a group of friends during her early days which have currently developed into a small, but very active Charitable Trust. The Sylvia Wright Trust currently has supporters from all parts of the UK and other countries.
Over the last 30 years, Madam Sylvia has opened a multispecialty hospital that can accommodate 220 patients and a boarding school for 210 children with hearing impairment. She has created a haven for 80 children with Intellectual disabilities by opening two-day centers. She has also instituted a Residential Nursing College for 80 students.
Madam Sylvia still runs outpatient clinics that treat about 80,000 patients a year and is involved in various community health projects. The whole operation is non-denominational and is open to all the local people according to their needs.