From Orphan to Founder: The Story of Shri Vinayak Ganpat Deokar

and began working early, selling lottery tickets, waiting tables, doing what was needed to survive and support a young family of five. By 25, he had lost both his adoptive parents, his father to old age at 16 and his mother to oral cancer years later.
Then, in 2001, came another blow. He was diagnosed with a serious heart condition. Shaken and devastated, he believed his story was reaching its end. But fate had one more turning point in store.

One day, Vinayak met a woman desperately seeking help to save her four-year-old son, who suffered from the same heart ailment he did. She had no money for treatment. That moment stirred something deep in him. Not pity, but purpose.

“If I couldn’t save myself, maybe I could save someone else.”

That spark became a fire.

In 2002, he founded Jeevan Mitra Pratishthan, a charitable trust that began supporting patients with serious medical conditions like Cancer and AIDS. And then, as more people came forward, children who were hungry, families who couldn’t afford school fees, his mission evolved.

In 2014, Shri Vinayak Deokar opened the gates to Mahatma Gandhi School, not just as an education centre, but as a sanctuary for the abandoned, the forgotten, and the economically broken.

No government aid. No big NGO support. Only heart, honesty, and hard work. To build the school, the founder went door-to-door collecting newspaper scraps, eventually raising ₹12 lakhs, not through donations, but through dignity in effort. Today, 575+ underserved children receive free English-medium education grounded in dignity and care. Every corner of Mahatma Gandhi School is a quiet testament to what belief can build.

In 2024, he took the next step establishing Destitute’s Palace, a residential space for orphans and vulnerable children needing long-term shelter and healing.