THE HISTORY OF KISES:
THE founder of KISES, Mr Shoury Babu Rebba, was born in a lower middle class family, in a remote village of Krishna District. Being a Dalit himself, he has experienced all kinds of social discrimination and economic backwardness ever since his childhood; and it was this experience that motivated him to work for the redressal of socio-economic evils and to establish a just society, wherein the poor and the marginalised can enjoy equality, fraternity and justice.
When Mr Babu was a child, he witnessed the massive disaster and destruction caused by the Diviseema Cyclone of 1977, in which thousands of people lost their lives and several thousands were left homeless. These sort of bitter experiences prompted him to take up social work in order to extend his helping hand to Dalits, tribals and women, the most underprivileged sections of Indian society.
But, in order to realize one’s dreams and put one’s good motives into practice, one needs sufficient economic resources. Since Mr Babu belongs to a lower middle class family, no such resources were available to him and he was forced by circumstances to seek employment in the banking sector and was subsequently posted to the Khammam District. There, he witnessed once again the miserable living conditions of the Tribals and Dalits, who have been suffering for generations due to oppression, discrimination and marginalisation.
Ultimately, he was forced by his conscience to put his long-cherished dream of social work into practice, though in a humble way, with programmes like literacy, savings and income-generating initiatives. He received an overwhelming response from the people he helped and went ahead to form Kiranmayi Socio Educational Society (KISES) in 1999.
Ever since its inception, KISES has been working among the Dalits, the Tribals, all the economically weaker sections of society, and starting several development activities in the sectors of health, education, empowerment of women etc – anywhere he could bring about sustainable improvement in the quality of life. These activities included the successful rehabilitation and re-orientation of tsunami victims.