The calm appearance of the middle-aged, cotton sari clad woman - who, with her hair tied up in a ponytail, looks like a simple homemaker - hides nerves of steel. With able support from her diamond merchant husband, Mahendra Mehta and her two sons and daughters-in-law, Mumbai-based Asha Mehta runs and manages the Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust (RNCT) - an organisation that has initiated many projects for street children, kids studying in municipal schools and the handicapped. She also rushes aid to those afflicted by unfortunate circumstances - like earthquakes, the tsunami (in Tamil Nadu, one of the worst hit states, they have mobile vans that reach out to people left handicapped by the giant waves) or the severe deluge that swamped Mumbai last year.

At her simple office in an old, art deco building at Khetwadi - a central suburb of Mumbai overrun by narrow gullies, from where Mehta runs her food programme - a sticker on the door proclaims, '19,000 children have stopped eating from dustbins....' Outside, two local women are cleaning the rice and separating the wheat from the chaff. In the kitchen a little distance away, hot veggies are being cooked in large kadais (utensils) and sheera (a sweetmeat) is being ladled into many dabbas (containers) that will vend their way to street children and those studying in municipal schools.

Right now, the RNCT's food programme provides one nutritious meal, six times a week, to over 8,000 children, either through non-governmental organisations or municipal schools. "We always work through an NGO or a school because that makes our task easier. We don't have the required infrastructure to reach out to so many children," Mehta explains. At one time, they expected the schools and NGOs to send their own people to collect the meal, which comprises dal, rice, rotis, one green vegetable and sometimes, a dessert. "But we realised that the NGOs or municipal schools weren't equipped to pick up the food and often, their kids would go hungry." Now, the trust sends out tempos and vehicles to deliver the food, "though that's where our responsibility ends. Our field person checks that the food reaches the right mouths, but the onus of feeding the kids and cleaning up the dabbas rests with the NGOs or the schools."

Sitting in her very ethnic living room that overlooks the Arabian Sea, watching the waves hurtle against the huge, black rocks, Mehta rewinds to the time when she stepped into her new household as a young bride of 18: "Though my family was traditional, they were also very liberal in many matters. My husband wanted me to study further, but then I got pregnant and took a break."

She had two boys and life would have gone on pretty smoothly, except that the lady had a desire for 'social work'. It helped that her mother-in-law, Leelavati Mehta, was a benevolent woman, who set up the family trust that Mahendra, her son, took over in 1995. And he had asked Ms Galby, the former French director of Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work in Mumbai, if his wife could help in some projects. "She took me to the college and asked me to attend certain lectures. I was then 24 years old and a complete novice. I didn't begin working with my family trust because it was a very small venture and I didn't have any experience to take it to bigger heights," says Mehta.

Posted at the college's family service centre, first as an administrative assistant and then as an activist, Mehta worked with them for 10 years, before taking a sabbatical as her mother-in-law was unwell and needed her. "The work at our family centre focussed on popularising adoption among childless couples and finding good homes for kids without one. It really helped me see the realities of life and stay grounded," says the simply dressed woman who barely looks like a diamond merchant's wife, with her plain gold earrings and simple chain.

What you notice about her, besides her determination to do good to as many people as possible, are her innate levels of loyalty. After being with the Family Centre for a decade, she worked as a trustee for the Diwaben Mehta trust belonging to a family friend for nine and a half long years, before calling it quits and joining her own family organisation. "My husband, who had always played an active role in RNCT, was contemplating handing over the active running of the business to my son and wanted to spend time building the trust," she says. The two set up several ventures, like their garment project in 1992. Good quality clothes from across the world are brought to the centre in Khetwadi and packed according to the ages of the people they are being dispatched to. The trust has tie-ups with the Saints Charity at Salt Lake City, US and the Share and Care organisation in New York for their garments programme.

In 1995, the duo established the functional, yet humungous kitchen for the food programme. Today, they work with 300 NGOs and schools across the city. "We used to reach children in other cities and states too, but since the time the European Nation Food Programme pulled out after India conducted the nuclear tests, we have had to stop the other city ventures." The food programme works in two ways: there are children in municipal schools who are given food free of cost, except that the educational institute has to pay Rs 3 per child as administrative costs. Then there is the food for savings programme via the NGOs working with street kids, where the children are asked to deposit Rs 2 to 3 with the social organisation (not the trust), which is then put into a bank. The kids develop the habit of saving and can withdraw the money whenever they want. "Most kids end up saving Rs 50 to Rs 200 every month," says Mehta.

There is also their very successful 'Project Mainstream', which trains people in several different service oriented vocations like security guards, para-medical personnel and nurses. "They are offered microcredit on long term to set up businesses," reveals Mahendrabhai. "It's the world's first urban microcredit programme that reaches the poor living in a city, unlike others that work with people in rural areas. It's amazing that some return the money even 20 years later, since they feel it will help other boys or girls like them to achieve their goals."

Among RNCT's popular projects is one for the physically handicapped, called 'Project Mobility'. Through their centre in Mumbai, the organisation provides appliances like calipers and Jaipur Foot to handicapped children and adults. They hold camps across India, like the one they did in Dharamshala, along with the Dalai Lama. "Do you know that in six districts of Gujarat alone there are 11,000 handicapped kids, or that all over the state there are over 72,000?" asks an incredulous Mehta. The RNCT is initiating a Sarv Sikshan Abhiyaan across Gujarat. Mobile vans well-equipped with calipers, wheel chairs, hearing aids and Jaipur foot will soon reach handicapped children studying in government schools in six districts of the state.

It takes loads of time and meticulous planning to run an organisation that spreads itself thin over so many work areas, but Mehta says she is lucky to have family support. Her US-based daughter-in-law and son, Ami and Sanjeev, help them raise funds there, while her Mumbai-based diamond merchant son, Rajiv and her chartered accountant daughter-in-law, Nandini, chip in with time, money and expertise.

"Right now, I am stuck in office at all times because of the kind of administrative work that goes into running such a place," says the spunky lady. "But my best moments are when I am out on the field, vetting NGOs we work with for our projects or on the mobile vans for the handicapped, as it travels across India for the camps we put up." Besides its regular projects, RNCT also helps with money, food grains and clothes when disasters strike. Some of her most poignant memories take her back to the after-effects of the 1992 Mumbai riots or the tsunami that hit the coast of south-east Asia a couple of years ago. "Natural disasters are bound to shake you up, but then you have to keep your emotions at bay and work with people who need immediate help."