Sylvia Subbaiah was recognized with a 2011 TI Founders Community Service Award for her devotion to helping the local community.

Sylvia Subbaiah says she absorbed the "spirit of giving" from her mother when she was a child. The satisfaction her mother derived from serving mid-day meals to the household maids made a lasting impression on her.

So it did not come as a surprise when, in 1998, Subbaiah took the lead in motivating TI India engineers to volunteer to teach science-related subjects at the National Public School in Bangalore in their free time. She also organized visits by senior students of the school to TI.

Not only that, but in 2003, Subbaiah started the TI India Foundation (TIIF) and took on its leadership.

"We started with just 12 volunteers," she said. "We now have reached a stage where we can organize all our initiatives in a very efficient way. The passion to contribute to society has brought in many TI employees to participate in our programs."

TIIF leads the way
The first program that TIIF undertook involved the Little Sisters of the Poor, an old age home in Bangalore. Over the years, TI India volunteers have established a strong bond with the senior citizens who live in the home.

The volunteers spend time with residents, provide them with provisions, conduct entertainment programs, and celebrate World Elders Day and Christmas with them.

TIIF also assists families and children. In association with the Akshara Foundation, a public charitable trust, TIIF places children from economically weak sections of Bangalore in primary schools and meets their education expenses under its Child Education Program. This program won the TI Founders Community Service Award for 2010 in the team category. The team placed as many as 292 children in schools last year alone.

This year, Subbaiah and her team have identified more than 500 children from economically deprived backgrounds to admit into schools. The team conducts counseling sessions for the parents to help them understand the importance of education and the benefits that education brings not just to the child, but to the entire family.

Subbaiah said many parents prefer their children to work rather than study. It takes a lot of counseling to persuade them that it pays in the long run to get their children educated.

Other programs that TIIF conducts every year under Subbaiah's leadership include:

• TI Science & Technology Quiz for high school students. The quiz was conducted in Bangalore for the first time in 2003 and today covers five cities across India.
• "One free dialysis a day" conducted in association with Bangalore Kidney Foundation.
• Blood donation campaigns.
• Planting of saplings on the TI India campus.
• Collection of old clothes and newspapers for donation.