ABOUT
KUSUM MISHRA FOUNDATION
Our Story
Kusum Mishra Foundation was established to honour a life lived with compassion, curiosity, and an unwavering commitment to helping others.
Named after Mrs. Kusum Mishra (1956–2008), the Foundation carries forward the values she embodied throughout her life. Although her formal education ended after Class X, she remained a lifelong learner, embracing new ideas, technology, and opportunities for growth with remarkable enthusiasm. She believed deeply in the importance of education, especially for women, and was known for supporting those around her with kindness, encouragement, and practical help.
Her appreciation for Madhubani art reflected her belief that cultural heritage should not only be preserved but also create opportunities and dignity for the women who sustain it. She valued community, family, and service, and believed that even small acts of support could have a lasting impact on people's lives.
The Foundation was created to continue these values through meaningful initiatives that empower women, strengthen communities, preserve heritage, and promote healthy ageing.
Why We Exist
Across many communities, women continue to face barriers to education, financial independence, and access to opportunities. Traditional art forms that have sustained generations of women artisans often struggle to find recognition and fair economic value. At the same time, access to health awareness, preventive care, and support for older adults remains limited for many families.
Kusum Mishra Foundation was established in response to these challenges.
We believe that lasting social change begins when women are empowered, communities are healthier, cultural traditions are respected, and older adults are able to age with dignity and care. Through focused programmes and meaningful partnerships, we work to create opportunities that improve lives while preserving the values and traditions that connect communities.
Foundation Overview
Kusum Mishra Foundation is a non-profit organisation working in four areas — women's education, Madhubani art and livelihood, community health and wellness, and healthy ageing. Each area connects back to something Mrs. Kusum Mishra personally believed in and quietly practised throughout her life.
We are not a large organisation trying to do everything. We are a focused one trying to do four things well.
Women's Education
Madhubani Art & Livelihood
Health & Wellness
Healthy Ageing
Mission and Vision
To support women's education, sustain Madhubani art as a real livelihood, strengthen community health, and advocate for ageing with dignity — through work that is honest, consistent, and rooted in community.
A society where women are educated and financially independent, where cultural heritage is lived and not just preserved, and where no one grows old without care and recognition.
Foundation Overview
Compassion
We don't start with programmes. We start with people — their circumstances, their constraints, and what they actually need.
Empowerment
Real empowerment is quiet. It's a girl who stays in school, a woman who earns from her own skill, a community that looks after its own.
Dignity
Every person we work with — whether a young girl, a Madhubani artisan, or an elderly woman — deserves to be treated with full respect. That is non-negotiable.
Learning
Kusum Ji never stopped learning, even when life gave her reasons to. That belief runs through everything we do.
Heritage Preservation
Madhubani art is not a relic. It is a living tradition made by living women. We want it to stay that way — and to pay them fairly for it.
Community Impact
We don't parachute in. We build slowly, with the communities we serve, because that is the only kind of progress that lasts.
The Values That Guide Our Work
Mrs. Kusum Mishra didn't talk about changing the world. She helped the women around her stay educated. She supported families when things got hard. She kept Madhubani art alive in her home as something meaningful, not decorative.
That is what this Foundation is trying to do — at a larger scale, with more people, but with exactly the same spirit.
Everything we do is rooted in that.