About Us

Inspiration

The Loomba Foundation was established in the UK on 26 June 1997. It was created by Raj and Veena Loomba by charitable trust deed, and has sister charities in India and the USA.

The inspiration came from Raj’s late mother, Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba, who became a widow at the age of 37 in the Punjab in India. Although she had never received any formal schooling herself, she succeeded in educating her seven children single-handed.

The Loomba Foundation was launched in London in March 1998, in the presence of the then Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP and his wife Cherie Blair. The Foundation also received the support of the Prime Minister of India, The Honourable Atal Behari Vajpayee, who inaugurated the Foundation in New Delhi on 31 March 1999 by lighting a lamp at his residence, in the presence of the British High Commissioner, Sir Rob Young and the renowned BBC correspondent Sir Mark Tully OBE.

The Foundation was honoured that Cherie Blair, who became the first Patron of the Foundation in 1998, agreed to become the President of the Foundation, inaugurating Loomba House in London in September 2004, in the presence of the Indian High Commissioner, HE Shri Kamlesh Sharma.

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Atlantic, supported the Foundation by making an Appeal on BBC Radio 4 in support of the Foundation in 2000. He has also raised over £500,000 for the Foundation through three ‘Change for Children’ Appeals on Virgin flights worldwide. He became Patron-in-Chief of the Foundation in 2004 and has supported the Foundation’s work further by attending its fundraising events in India in 2004 and in South Africa in 2006.