The loss of Rajen Reddy, founder of the RR Group, said Mrs Esay Reddy, his wife of nearly
40 years, was not just limited to her family. Rajen, she said, touched the lives of everyone with whom he came into contact. Esay added that after his passing she had to put her own feelings aside and concentrate on how others were feeling.
“I think the Rajen Reddy Foundation came about because I thought of the things that Rajen wouldn’t be around to do – the things that he was so passionate about doing,” explained Esay. Consequently, the Rajen Reddy Foundation (RR Foundation) was formed to carry on all the work that Rajen Reddy had done in the past.
“The RR Foundation was the only way I could honour all that he did for the people outside his company, whether this was going into the township and talking to the children there, or sitting and speaking to the aged,” said Esay. “He wanted to acknowledge the people that grew the country – whether this was in the area he grew up in – or in the areas where he did his plumbing and building. He knew what the people in these areas were doing and how many of them were battling, including what their challenges were. He wanted to make things better – even if it was for one day. He never said no to anyone who came to ask him for help.”
As a consequence of Rajen Reddy’s genuine interest in helping people, the RR Foundation has three pillars; these are education, mental health (philosophical psychology) and physical health. Commenting on the pillars, Esay said that Rajen was passionate about education and while he did not study further formally, he read and watched documentaries ferociously. He often found it challenging that he could sit with presidents, kings, and people with degrees, while he was just a matriculant. This status, she said, played on his mind but he took ownership of his unique circumstances. She added that Rajen wanted youngsters to know how to be an entrepreneur – how to run your own business. He would have frequent meetings with them, which often he considered more important than his own business matters.
As Rajen became a diabetic in his later years, physical health is the second pillar of the RR Foundation. The benefits of a health-conscious lifestyle has importance to everybody. Based on this pillar, the RR Group has started an employee wellness programme. This programme monitors aspects of the health of their employees, such as blood pressure, on a monthly basis and provides health education.
Both Rajen and Esay were involved in hospice, Chatsworth and Phoenix respectively. Esay commented, “When we looked at the people who had passed away from cancer, we realised that there was no children’s hospice locally.”
Consequently, under the health pillar, one of the projects is to build the Aurora Children’s Hospice. The Foundation has a property in La Mercy, which says Esay has its own story – there is family history behind it, so it is apt that this will be the location for the hospice.
The third pillar and for Esay – the most important one, especially for now – is mental health. Initially the Foundation considered gender-based violence as a key project as it is a huge problem in today’s world and in our country. Esay commented, “However, mental health has far overtaken the front line of what we need to address currently. You have to get your mind in the right space – and once you have got that sorted out then your body follows and everything else in your life starts to toe the line.”
Commenting on the RR Foundation, Esay explained, “Whatever I try to do is always to honour Rajen and the legacy that he has created and to ensure that his memory and the things that he has done in our province continue to get done. Our goal is to continue to help the people in our province first – I always believe start at home – and then take it out further.”
Esay reflected that she manages the loss of Rajen by thinking that he has just gone on a long journey and he will be back. She concluded, “I believe that I am the custodian of everything that we are doing right now. I ask myself that if Rajen were to walk in today would he be satisfied in the way we are doing things. Rajen did not focus on money but always on helping people and that is what we have tried to carry out. Would he say you did well, the children stepped up to the plate or you all did what I have taught you all these years to carry out and to do. If I get an affirmative, then I know that we did good. If we have achieved that then my heart feels a bit lighter.”