Founder

Dr Natteri V Chandran is a Melbourne-based psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and educator at the University of Melbourne. His work in these areas as well as his contributions to the charitable and community service sectors have been recognized in international publications like Who’s Who in Medicine and Who’s Who in the World.

Born in 1946 in Madras, India, he studied medicine as a national merit scholar at JIPMER in Pondicherry. In 1971, Dr Chandran left for Australia to study and work. In 1992, acting on his desire to give back something to the community that raised him, Dr Chandran founded The East West Foundation of India (TEWFI), a charitable and educational organization committed to helping those in need in India. He also set up The East West Centre (TEWC), dedicated to helping the mentally unwell among the poor and disadvantaged in Australia, and The East West Overseas Aid Foundation (TEWOAF) in Australia, partner organizations of TEWFI having broader charters and similar aims.

Dr Chandran was awarded the American Biographical Institutes’s Man of the Year Commemorative Medal honouring community service and professional achievement in 1995, and the Prime Minister of Australia’s certificate of recognition for extraordinary contribution to the community and Australia in 2001. He was recognised in India with the ‘Hind Rattan’ national award in New Delhi in 2004 for his dedicated service to the community.