Mrs. Shyama Kaviratne

Kaviratne was born in Mumbai and has kept close ties with the city. Her family founded and ran Bal Anand, a charitable trust set up to supplement the education of children in need. She studied management and worked for about twenty years with a nationalised Indian bank.

Her husband's postings with Unilever took the couple to countries from Argentina to Indonesia, and she became experienced at setting up homes in unfamiliar places.

The couple founded St. Jude India ChildCare Centres in 2006 after Nihal Kaviratne saw families of cancer patients sleeping on the pavements outside Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. Shyama Kaviratne's interest in work with children and his concern with shelter were combined into a single idea: safe, clean housing for children receiving cancer treatment.

She was responsible for setting up the prototype centre — simple, practical, easy to clean and inexpensive, using bright colours for walls and furnishings — with eight family units. The first centres were funded by the couple themselves. She has continued to ensure that new centres are replicated to the same standards as the organisation expanded to dozens of centres across a number of Indian cities.[2][3][4]