Offering Community and Care

The Indus Cares Foundation is dedicated to supporting advances in medical care, health and wellness education and literacy for under-served children.

By MADISON O’BAR, HAA Communications Manager

The Indus Cares Foundation was founded in 2013 to support advances in medical care, health and wellness, education, and literacy for under-served children in the Houston community where its affiliated company, Indus Communities, operates almost 11,000 apartment homes. This family-operated company started over 35 years ago when it was founded by Ajay Gupta, whose strong belief in the power of education and passion for the commu nity was the catalyst for the creation of this nonprofit. Now Gupta’s daughter, Avani Narang, does the heavy lifting for Indus Cares.

Avani serves as the Managing Director of Marketing and Digital Communications and the Executive Director of the Indus Cares Foundation. “It seems like a mouthful, but I have been given the opportunity to work with my family on making our residents lives better as a business and through community outreach,” Avani told HAA.

Indus Cares provides the promise of an organization that cares about people and tries to remove the obstacles in their path to the best of their ability.

HAA was able to sit down with Avani and ask her questions about the good work that the Indus Cares Foundation does in Houston. Avani told us about the foundation’s charitable endeavors, their accomplishments and all they have to offer their community.

What is the Indus Cares Foundation’s ‘motto’?

Our motto centers on the idea that every person deserves an opportunity to build their home at Indus Communities and have access to resources that will lift them up.

What are some of these resources?

The culture of volunteerism runs through all our communities. At any one time, there is a food distribution, kid’s meals, or some type of class or advisory service (ESL, health education, mental health and early childhood development) running. We also offer job skills training for young adults with disabilities through an onsite center operated by Social Motion Skills.

Indus Cares also offers a range of opportunities for children and families, and we are constantly re-evaluating to see what more we can bring to them. We offer early childhood development classes, after-school programs, computer labs with reading software, hot lunches and snacks to families and frequent opportunities for childhood immunizations. We have also recently installed a free library at Westward Square that has books in different languages to support our diverse community.

What are some of the foundation’s biggest accomplishments?

Indus Cares administers a scholarship program for employees and their families. This program has awarded over $175,000 in its tenure. It enables high school students to save for college and college/graduate students to defray some of the costs of their education.

Also, through Indus Cares, Indus Communities was the first to offer onsite COVID-19 vaccines to our residents. We have administered over 6,000 vaccines and boosters. The corporate entity also centralized efforts to educate and assist our residents to apply for $11 million of rent relief during COVID-19.

With respect to the matter of food insecurity, Indus Cares has allowed for hundreds of tons of produce, over 200,000+ boxed meals and TDA qualified nutritious meals, to more than 2,000 children each week at Indus Communities.

How does the Indus Cares Foundation focus on education, health, and meal support?

When the Indus Cares Foundation began offering programs in 2017, we evaluated these areas as our primary areas of concern based on the needs of our residents at the time. These main areas of concern have been our focus and we constantly meet with community organizers, the Greater Houston Community Foundation, and attend events to broaden our understanding of what the needs of our residents may be.

Why are these things so important to Indus?

Our founder had a vision that we should imagine more for our residents. By listening and taking an interest, we can do so much more, and there are some incredible organizations in the Greater Houston area that all share the same passion as Indus Cares.

What is your personal favorite opportunity that the Indus Cares Foundation gives to the community?

That’s a hard question! I truly am proud of all our community partnerships and the support they provide. I have been especially proud of one of the newer opportunities for early childhood development. Indus Cares added the Collab Lab (provided through Collaborative for Children) at our apartment communities for ages three to five years old to bring STEM activities to our communities. These classes, coupled with efforts led by the Rupani Foundation for children and parents, help strengthen our ability to navigate common challenges families face.

What does the future look like for the Indus Cares Foundation?

We are looking to expand our resources for residents around early childhood development, provide more mental health awareness and increase our food distribution opportunities early next year as well. We are in the process of putting together our strategic plan with family members, including HAA Board member Manu Gupta, to meet these goals in the next few years.

How can people help support this amazing foundation?

We are currently seeking qualified partners for food distribution for our apartment communities. Indus Cares is always interested in meeting community partners to support our work and to provide resources to families, children, seniors and disabled residents.

HAA is so proud to have Indus Communities as a long-time member of our association and are even more proud of all the good work they have brought to Houston through their Indus Cares Foundation.

If you would like to know more about the Indus Cares Foundation you can visit their website at www.induscares.org.